Justice: Evolution
by L-Dog Z
Summary: Revamp story. Its the world built on dreams about to crumble, with Lex Luthor looking to be president as the start. Wally West, the nephew of the original Flash, visits the City of Tomorrow with one request for his Uncle's former ally: bring back the JLA. But, while Superman is reluctant, when Luthor's schemes uncover Kara Zor-El, Clark soon might have to change his mind.
1. Welcome to the City of Tomorrow, Part 1

Um, hi. To people who've read my work before, gasp! I know! Another story! ? Am I mad to try another while I've still got three others going on at the same time?! Well, to tell you the truth, I am, but only a little bit. And, this one isn't going to be an ongoing story that will probably never end. To new readers, I've been writing a couple of spin-off fics for X-Men Evolution based around expanding its universe to include elements and people from the larger Marvel Universe, building up as _Uncanny X-Men Evolution _(Formerly titled _X-Men Evolution: The Comic_), which works as a direct continuation for the series, _Spider-Man Evolution_, which is for now to build up to Spidey's guest appearances in my other fic, and _Avengers Evolution_, which was made to stop me from trying to make them guest star in all my ideas. After several years (IE, two or three, I'm not actually sure) of writing it I've decided to give a go at writing a DC story. My idea for doing this came from that, after playing too much Arkham City, I got into a massive Batman (and by extension, the whole of DC) craze, and began thinking of ideas for my own 'Batman Evolution' like with my previous stories along with a full DC Universe Evolution, and I kinda wanted to make a crossover between that and my other fics despite the fact it's a whole 'nother universe, and that characters had already made reference to DC's guys as fictional characters. But, that's when I realised that, I _could_ make a universal crossover, like JLA/Avengers, but to do so would require fleshing out tons of mythology, which would make each chapter really long.

So, that's where this came in. This is my way of establishing a DCU to work with. I admit its been hard to actually get into DC, with New 52 basically screwing things up and leaving very few approachable books (Right now, the only books I'm reading are Nightwing, Green Arrow, and Superman Unchained), and with the best books being what came out before it, I decided along the line to basically make this how I would have taken the New 52. I'm not just repeating DC stories, I'm writing my own using ideas from previous works, and trying to do so in a manner which people can read.

My original idea was to start from scratch, but now I decided to make it like Watchmen, only, you know, not depressing as hell and likely not as well written (I mean, I'm not Alan Moore, comparing my work to Alan Moore would be like comparing One Direction to the Beetles; they're in a whole 'nother league); I see the DCU as a more positive and idealistic entity (I really hate the whole 'brrr be dark and grim!' thing; Marvel tend to do it better, but only a handful of DC properties can work in a darker sense, primarily the 'normal' characters like Batman and Green Arrow); to me, Marvel show what the world with superheroes would be like in a more cynical reality (superhumans are hated and feared, heroes are more likely to be forced to kill, technology can't advance too far out of fear of being weaponized and used for power, etc), but DC's are the idealist reality (Superhumans are beloved and worshipped, heroes work closely to avoid crossing the line, technology has made huge leaps forward because of superheroes helping, etc).

The League's already started, only they've broken up following some tragic events, and Wally West is trying to bring them back. Unlike my Avengers story, which had a relatively large cast but were essentially one team, instead this League will be massive, with a huge primary team and a smaller second team (which are essentially my take on the Teen Titans or Young Justice, haven't decided on which), a large group of supporting players, and regular appearances from other heroes.

Anyway, enough rambling, let's start this.

...

Prologue

The World has seen a great number of changes over the past two decades. With the arrival of freak meteor showers resulting in strange mutations in people, technology making sudden leap forward in multiple fields, to the rise of the Superhumans and repeated alien invasions, earth as we know it has long since been abandoned. People live longer, healthier lives thanks to medical breakthroughs courtesy of STAR labs, while Queen Consolidated revolutionizes computer technology, Wayne Industries contributes to better Law Enforcement procedures and stronger prisons, and LexCorp pushes weapons technology to the forefront; the American People can rest easier, in a state free of war and fear.

From human enemies, at least. Superhumans aren't always noble, but fortunately, enough are to stem away the dangers the bad ones pose. Until one day, five years ago, they couldn't. A being most couldn't comprehend came to earth, bent of destroying every fibre of life. Guided by an alien known as Brainiac and assisted by the LexCorp CEO Alexander 'Lex' Luthor -a man hated and feared by the superhero community due to his villainous anti-superhuman stance- in disarming Earth's protectors, the 'Anti-Monitor' killed thousands, and would have killed more had the superhero known as the Flash given his life to destroy the Anti-Monitor's source of power, and with LexCorp's weaponry finishing the alien, the world was able to rest in peace and return to normal.

But, without their heart, the superhero team known as the Justice League was torn apart, and LexCorp's new public favour, with Luthor himself now in line for presidency, morale for the blooming superhumans is at an all time low. They need someone to pull them from their ashes and reunite their greatest super team. They need a real hero.

**Welcome to the City of Tomorrow, Part 1**

...

Metropolis, Kansas. The biggest and brightest city in the state, and one of America's many prides.

"...with five years behind him of providing this country with both a safe, clean and cheap energy source and an even safer America for us to live in, Senator Luthor has been described as Superman we can relate to." A large monitor screen outside a larger building happily announces, while images displaying the executive of LexCorp in various acts of charity, painting him as a perfect presidential candidate. "Only son of famed-and-now-shamed self-made millionaire Lionel Luthor, Lex rebuilt his father's financial empire when he was arrested and charged with crimes against humanity. Luthor turned the company on its head, with employment drives and millionaire breakthroughs, Luthor helped protect the world when it needed it the most. And so, if you're going to chose your next leader, why not pick a hero? A Patriot? A financial and scientific Genius?"

"...A liar, a murderer, a crazy ass lunatic. But I guess that doesn't really get votes." A random red-headed citizen mutters to himself, watching the ad while standing by a hotdog stand, or rather leaning next to it bored out of his mind, waiting for the vender to finish preparing his third lunch.

"What was that?" he vender asks, overhearing him.

"Oh nothing." The red headed man replies, while still listening to the TV.

"News just in. Escaped terrorist Winslow 'Toyman' Schlott has taken hostages Metropolis national bank. The Metropolis Police Department is currently trying to negotiate with Schlott, but they're having no luck so far. Hostages expecting to be rescued by Superman are unlikely to get it, as he's currently busy dealing with a nuclear meltdown in the STAR Labs research facility. We-"

"Can you put some extra sauce on that?"

"Sure." The vender turns his back, giving the man roughly ten seconds to move. Time, seems to slow to a stop for a moment, as the red head turns to make a ash to the east. Yellow lightning crackles around him, as his cells explode with kinetic energy, enough to power millions of homes with a single step. Tearing away his blue shirt, kicking off his jeans and shoes, he holds his hand out as a yellow ring opens up, expanding red and yellow fibres that proceed to bathe his body, encasing him in a resilient and skin tight ensemble of similar coloured clothing.

Within a second, he's at the bank. Within two, the hostages are free, three then they're outside with their family, four, explosives rigged to stop intrusion are deactivated, and five, Schlott realizes what's just happened.

"Well, if it isn't our Big Blue buddy, here to save the day." Schlott, a man of noticeable stature and red curly hair, looks around with distaste towards their arrival, but not surprise all the while taking out a small black box. "Fortunately, I came prepared for you, my Alien acquaintance."

Schlott opens the box, revealing a glowing green rock, while flashing a smug grin at his assumed advantage.

"Oh wow, just what I always wanted!" The Scarlet Speedster taunts, stealing the alien rock from his hand and showing it to him. "Sorry, were you expecting the big guy with the curly locks and flowing cape?"

"What? Who are-" Schlott tries to question as the agile hero zooms behind him, resting by his deactivated weapons.

"What? Don't you read the papers? I'm the Flash, the fastest man alive." The red headed hero explains, appearing on the opposite side of the room with a quick dash.

"But, you died!" Schlott can't believe his eyes as the fast moving, and equally fast talking, red suited do-gooder leaps in front of him, nearly knocking him over by his momentum. But, the Flash is dead, he died five years ago, how is he back?

"I did? Oh geese, thanks for telling me! But, its about now when the punching starts. Hope being crazy comes with a great dental plan!"

Twenty seconds after arriving, the police finally decide to investigate, but all they discover is Schlott, knocked unconscious; his weapons destroyed, and the sign of a lightning bolt piercing a circle burnt into the ground (pointless and a waste of his small amount of time? Of course, but stylish as hell), with no sign of the hero there.

"There, here you go." The vender asks, turning around to see the red headed man, merely buttoning up his shirt, as they hand him the money. They had their back turned for thirty seconds, and they missed the sight of the man disappearing to save some people's lives.

"Thanks." They nod while taking his hotdog and turning away, smiling a little as he goes on his way. Today, Wally West just reintroduced the world to the Fastest Man Alive, and soon, he's going to reintroduce them to something much greater.

...

Shuster Apartments, one of Metropolis' better places of residence, and yet one of many places LexCorp has been seeking to demolish. For most, they'd just chalk it up to some problem in the apartments or to a simple tycoon trying to expand his businesses. But, two residents know the truth. While Lex Luthor is considered a hero and patriot by most of the public, there is a handful of Metropolis residents who seek to undermine his presidency campaign and expose his skeletons. And Lex knows many of these people personally, and would gladly see them homeless for their transgressions against him.

At an early time of the morning, one of these particular people wake, rising from her bed to find her husband gone, having snuck out once again and failed to return.

With a grumble, the raven-haired Pulitzer Prize winning reporter got out of her bed, approaching her phone dressed in one of her husband's dress shirts.

In the Kent farm in Smallville, their phone rings, being answered quickly by the patriarch of the Kent family, Jonathan.

"Lois?" The elder farmer asked, confused by the call.

"Hey Mister Kent, just checking if Clark's there."

"Lois, as your father in law I've told you, 'Mister Kent' is too informal. And no, Clark's not here. He disappeared again?"

"Apparently. And I thought you taught Ol'Smallville better than to disappear like this."

"Well, with a son like Clark, he's probably out saving the world again." Jonathan shrugged. "Have you tried Chloe?"

"Going to check now. Thanks anyway, Jonboy."

"I think I prefer Mister Kent to 'Jonboy', actually. Bye Lois."

"Bye." Lois hangs up the phone with a small snicker, dialling another number; her cousin's.

"Ugh, Lois? can you not call before noon in the future? I don't get enough sleep as it is." Chloe Sullivan asks as she slowly wakes up.

"I can tell." Lois replies, smiling on her end. "But, since you're up, need to ask you something."

"What do you need Lois?" Chloe rolls her eyes, yawning as she walks about the apartment.

"Looking for Smallville, seen him?"

"Clark?" Chloe raises an eyebrow. "Yes, I saw him in between the two seconds it took me between waking up and answering the phone. No Lois, I haven't seen your husband."

"Well, have you checked up stairs?" Lois asks, making Chloe sigh, heading up the spiral staircase in her apartment.

On a small balcony at the top of the building, a being stands, watching over the people bellow. This building, the tallest in the city and so nicknamed 'The Watchtower' by the people of Metropolis, overlooks the entire city, and on a good day, one could see all the way from the Tomorrow District to Suicide Slums from this balcony. For the reporter known as Clark Kent however, he could hear Japan from this spot; the faintest sound of a small gasp in Tokyo was clear as someone shouting right next to him, and likely to all Kryptonians.

Clark, decked in his iconic red and blue tights, keeps a constant visual of the city, and the world outside of it too. Outside of his identity as a humble reporter from a farming county in Kansas, he's known to all as the iconic Man of Steel, the Last Son of Krypton, the Man of Tomorrow, Earth's Greatest Champion, the Big Blue Boyscout, and many other nicknames of varying badassary and cheesiness, but most notably, he is Superman.

Chloe makes her way up to join him; he notices but doesn't acknowledge at first, as she watches him occasionally turn into a blurred image, returning to normal within a second; one he just spent saving someone's life.

"You know, it usually helps if you actually sleep once in a while." Chloe tells him, approaching him as he starts to pay attention to her.

"Did I wake you?"

"Nope, the lovely Mrs Lane did that, who, I might add, would like a word with you." Chloe told him, handing him the phone.

"Lois?" Clark takes the phone, listening to his annoyed wife.

"Ah, so you DO remember me! Have to tell you, for a minute Smallville I thought you went and forgot I existed, what with you leaving in the middle of the night without so much as a breakfast prepared or an apology note on the fridge." Lois rants a bit. "Catch the bad guys?"

"Yeah, sorry Lois, there was an incident at STAR Labs, they needed someone who'd last a few seconds in a nuclear core." Clark explains with a small, almost proud smile, making Chloe step back.

"So, you're irradiated? You're not going to sterilize me are you?"

"No, I'm not irradiated." Clark tells her, a small smile on his end.

"Well, in that case, get that spandex-clad butt of yours back to bed, I need something to cuddle for a few more hours before I can get on with my day." Lois orders him playfully.

"I'll be there soon, just got something I need to take care of." Clark tells her. "I promise, I'll be home soon."

"You better, Mr Kent." Lois grins on her end as she plops back into their bed. "See you soon, Smallville."

"Bye." Clark hangs up once they've said their goodbyes, turning to give Chloe the phone back.

"What's this important job you've got to do?" Chloe asks. "Need a computer a slick blond to bail you out again?"

"Probably, not sure." Clark replies, before explaining. "When I was busy at STAR Labs, Toyman tried to hold up a bank, knowing I'd be unable to stop him. But, according to witnesses, and from what I heard, it was all resolved by a Flash."

"What? You mean like, a flash of light and everything was peachy?"

"No, as in, _The_ Flash." Clark clears up, turning to look at her.

"Flash-Flash?" Chloe raises an eyebrow. "But, Barry Allen's gone, how is he-"

"That's what I'm listening to. This guy's been busy, REALLY busy." Clark explains. "Almost every second he's saving someone in the city, but he moves too fast so I can't really hear him until he slows down to do something. When he's moving, I can't find him."

"Well, add that to the weirdness meter. Barry was always faster than you, but not that fast."

"Exactly, and if this person really is going around wearing Barry's identity, I need to know who, and why." Clark adds, returning to listening.

"OK, good luck." Chloe nods, patting him on the back while turning away and yawning. "I'm going to go back to sleep."

Clark returns the nod, then returns to his task, listening in to the sounds of the city. Every time the Flash slows back to the speed of sound, Clark zooms to them, only for them to be gone by the time he gets there. He repeats this a few times, unable to get him, so he returns to the Watchtower repeatedly to look again, and again, and again.

"You know, you don't need to strain yourself."

Clark turns upon hearing this, seeing the figure he's chasing perched on the top of the Watchtower, waving to him while eating some potted noodles.

"Hi." The Flash gulps down another mouthful, finishing the pot before putting it down, zooming off and returning with another helping.

Upon immediate appearances, the figure is him: Barry Allen, the Flash himself. But his voice is a few octaves higher, sounding younger then Barry was. As well as this, the suit is a darker shade, with a distinct difference in their lightning bolt pattern on his front, forming an arrow of sorts with the 'belt' of the lighting pointing down. Its someone else, but he's not sure who.

"You're certainly working hard today, surprised to see you staying still for so long." Clark speaks, breaking the ice.

"Well, I need to keep my blood sugar high, so best to take a break and eat." The Flash responds with a jovial grace, smiling all the time.

"A friend of mine used to wear that costume, I'm not sure how he'd feel about you wearing it now." Clark informs him, taking the happy smirk off their face. "I don't know who you are or what you're trying to do, and out of respect, I'm not going to tear off that mask because of who it represents, but I want you to stop."

"Clark, I thought you liked to encourage superhumans to do good, and now you're trying to tell me to stop? Mixed messages buddy." Their smirk returns, as Clark lowers his eyebrows at his knowledge of his real name.

"Have you been stalking me?" Clark questions, angry at him knowing who he is and casually revealing it.

"No, but I do know a lot about you." The Flash hops down to his level, ignoring his own height difference between him. " guess you could say I look up to you. Of course, Barry? He's the one I idolise."

"Who are you?" Clark questions, getting annoyed at them.

"Follow me, you might find out." The Flash smiles, before disappearing, followed closely by Clark as he flies after him.

He doesn't use his full speed. If he did, Mr 'Faster than a speeding bullet' would barely even see him move. So, at a speed he sees as crawling, the Flash runs around, over, and through buildings, before darting over the sea, unfazed by the lack of solid matter and running ahead anyway.

Superman follows the imposter Flash, racing him in a manner he and the original often did for charitable events. He's not clear on their motive, exactly, but around about the time they got out of American waters, he realized where they were racing to. Question is, how does this person know about the Fortress of Solitude?

Upon getting to the entrance of his iced lair, the two both slip into the crystallized temple of Kryptonian origin, finally stopping once inside.

"What was that? I thought you were faster than that." The Flash snickers, as Superman looks at him disapprovingly, growing tired of his games.

"How do you know who I am/ How did you know of the Fortress?" Clark questions, his fists tensing.

"Because, you and Barry took me here." The Flash smiles, removing the mask and, subsequently, making Clark remember him.

"Wally West? Kid Flash?" Clark raises his eyebrows, surprised to see the younger speedster.

"Yep, in the flesh." Wally nods, holding his hands out. "Like my new duds?"

"Wally, what are you doing? This isn't a game-"

"of course it isn't, but that's the thing Clark, we can't go on like we're just messing around. Lex-Fricking-Luthor is looking to be the President for crying out loud! How have we not done something about this?"

"What are we supposed to do, Wally?" Clark sighs. "Don't tell me you've gone down the 'Ends Justify the Means' road."

"Of course not, but this man, he let the Anti-Monitor come in and destroy thousands to make himself look good. He's the one who caused Barry's death for crying out loud." Wally explains, getting worked up. "I thought we were just waiting for the right moment, but its been five years and he's about to become the most powerful man in the world, how have you not taken him down? Bring back the Justice League and kick his teeth out of his bald dome of a head."

"Wally, its great to see you after all these years, but the Justice League disbanded for a reason. We were better by ourselves." Clark tells him, turning away and looking at the wall. "What the Justie League accomplished, we could've done so without it. Its been five years and we haven't needed it."

"Haven't needed it? Lex Luthor is going to be president!" Wally gets slightly annoyed. "Clark, we can't let him go on like this, we have to shut him down. We need to League."

"Wally..."

"Please, for Barry."

Wally watches Clark think it over and, when he gets no reply, he sighs. Before Clark notices him moving, he's already gone.

Fortunately for Wally, Clark isn't the only Superhero in the world.

...

In Earth's atmosphere, among the satellites floats one in particular, monitoring the sky bellow. LexCorp's biggest satellite, christened 'Emperor' by Luthor himself, spends every second monitoring a specific energy pattern. This satellite, officially, monitors changes in earth's radiation levels, but in reality, it searches day and night for one object in particular: Superman.

While it can't pick him up all the time, it looks anyway for the times it catches glimpses of his unique energy reading. Some would call this obsession, and most would be right, but Luthor sees this as merely looking at your opponents hand during a card game when they leave the table for a second. To know when he's distracted helps Luthor make his plans against the self-appointed guardian of earth, so this satellite exists to give him that edge.

But, today, something goes wrong. A huge spike of radiation, not of any known kind, appears out of nowhere right next to the satellite. The metal instrument of space is quickly fried by the electrical pulse of this radioactive ring of seemingly nothing, until an object bursts out of the radiation spike, crashing, and destroying, the LexCorp Emperor and heading straight for earth.

Citizens on the ground flee when the object begins to fly right down at them, instead of merely falling, until its stopped in time by the quick appearance of the Man of Steel, distracting him from his previous activities. Clark takes the object, which appears to be a ship, back up into the air, resting it on the Watchtower as he looks over it. To his surprise, he recognizes the design instantly: Kryptonian, an evacuation vessel like the one he was sent in, only larger to accommodate an adult form. It seems to have some device attached, one radiating high quantities of an unknown radiation, prompting him to tear it off use his iced breath on it, reducing its radiation levels so as to not poison his friend bellow when she comes up later.

He scans the vessel, finding the opening and tearing it off, revealing inside the partially frozen, though still alive, figure of a young woman. She's about his age, with short blond hair, wearing a white suit similar to his own.

Slowly, she thaws herself out, her naturally high Kryptonian blood temperature quickly taking care of the ice as her body return to normal.

"What in the...?" Clark questions himself, watching as the woman briefly regains consciousness.

"Clark? Did it work?" She mumbles, recognizing him and, naturally, confusing him.

"Who are you?" Clark asks, checking to see if she's OK.

"Power Girl." She answers in a mutter, smiling at him. "...call me Power Girl."

Slowly, she drifts back off into unconsciousness, leaving Clark confused, until he finds a small device in the ship with her, one not until what Jor-El gave him all those years ago.

...

That night.

Star City, Oklahoma; praised as the greenest major city in America, its filled with wildlife reservations, nature reserves, and more than one museum dedicated to Robin Hood. Its also home to some of the biggest drug rings and slave traffickers this side of the Atlantic, and some of the most dangerous gangs of criminals; its one of the few cities left where Highwaymen are still a problem.

Fortunately, the most dangerous gang in the city, is also its greatest protectors.

In a warehouse, a blond haired man sits, chained up and covered in his own blood, as three mobsters sit around, occasionally getting up to hit him. It was a simple idea: Queen Industries would help them ship their drugs, and they don't kill Oliver and all his family and friends. All he had to do is say yes.

They'd just never met Oliver Queen.

"So, Mister Queen, how'd you feel now about our proposal?" The leader of the mobsters asks, drawing a knife out and trying to intimidate him.

"I feel you guys need new lightbulbs, the lighting in this room is so bad I can't tell if I'm being tortured by armed gunmen or the girl scouts of America." Queen spits out, looking up to the mobster. "Smells like the former, but punches like the latter."

"Do you want to die, Mister Queen?" The mobster questions, grabbing him by his hair to pull his head back, holding the knife in his face.

"If it'd get your mouth away from my face, I'm all for it. Seriously man, its called mouth wash, it works. Try it sometime."

And with that, Oliver Queen loses two teeth as the mobster takes another swing at his face.

"Anything else you want to say?" The mobster asks as Oliver slowly looks up, blood dripping from his mouth.

"Something." Oliver takes a quick glance around the room the second he can look straight. He spits out the teeth, a seemingly harmless gesture, until one of the goons collapses to the floor, gripping their throat, drawing the attention away from Oliver, who promptly slips his hands out of his binds, allowing him to stand up straight.

When they finally turn around to look back at Oliver, Ollie is towering over the guy, and takes him down with a double chop to the side of his neck. When the third man in the room begins to notice, Oliver kicks a gun out of the unconscious man's belt, then kicks it at the standing man's chest, taking him down. He walks to the first man to go down, noticing as he still struggles to breathe. So he doesn't die, Ollie places a hand on his throat, under his apple, then pushes up quickly, making the object he was choking on shoot up out of his mouth for Oliver to catch: His two lost teeth, the ones he spat out. They didn't expect him to be able to make such a difficult, almost impossible, move with such a strange weapon of choice.

Of course, they're not real teeth. Oliver lost most of them on the island; no tooth paste to keep his gums healthy combined with the beatings he suffered trying to live took out most of them. No, they're false teeth, these ones in particular designed to pop out when needed. Why? Oh, because he has an ear piece hidden in them, he was really crazy enough to think of that. Even Batman thought that idea was crazy; he still stole it, but he thought it was silly.

Oliver Queen places the 'teeth' in his ears, cracking his jab as he waits for a connection, before speaking, with a mic built into one of the other false teeth.

"Green Arrow to Speedy." He speaks up, spitting some blood out as he walked slowly, looking for a way out, and possibly a shirt. "Hearing me Mia?"

"Ollie?" A young female voice asks, sounding slightly exhausted, like she's currently doing some physical activity.

"Yeah, I'm up. Cleared the roof yet Speedy?"

"You bet your ass I have. Dealing with the goons in the top floor right now." His current sidekick answers, though she'd kick in your throat if she caught you calling her that, and also his adopted ward (some would call her his daughter, though they both prefer to think of it as siblings), Mia Dearden-Queen, who's currently kicking enough ass for Oliver to be able to hear some people's bone's break and the sound of arrows being fired. "Red Arrow's coming in hot, he's got your stuff."

"Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for him." Oliver nods, turning the devices off and putting them away, before mumbling to himself. "You know, as soon as I can see properly."

"Stop!" A single goon shouts, pointing a glock at him. A glock that is knocked out of his hand by a red arrow, that also injures his trigger finger. He's not going to be shooting or holding a gun in general, any time soon.

"What do you call this?" Oliver ask as his other, more troublesome, ward enters, Roy Harper. "You couldn't have came in before they used the taser?"

"You've had worse." Roy tells him, descending down and removing his hood.

"That is the worst excuse for being late to a rescue." Oliver mutters, as Roy just snickers. "What?"

"Oh, nothing, just, Diggle just muttered into the ear piece that if you didn't get kidnapped like this, we wouldn't have to rescue you."

"Whatever, just hand me my stuff." Oliver rolls his eyes as he's handed the dark green suit, along with his quiver, twin repeater crossbows, and his trademark recurve bow.

Oliver quickly suits up, leaving the hood down for a second as he scans the room.

"OK, connected." Oliver announces into their radio frequency. "Speedy, how things coming?"

"Just a second." She answers, before a punching sound is heard. "OK, just got five more...four more...three...what the hell?"

"Mia?" Oliver asks, raising his eyebrow.

"The goons, they just started disappearing, in like this flash of-Hey get the $^& off'a me!"

"Mia? Mia! Tell me what's happening!" Oliver demands, as he overhears a wooshing sound behind him.

"Right here." Mia tells him as she finds herself standing behind Oliver, surprising him, before slowly noticing someone else in the room.

"Sorry about that, I was getting bored and wasn't sure how long you'd all take." Wally announces to them, drawing their attention to him standing by the side.

"The Flash?" Oliver and Mia mumble in union, as he pulls off his mask.

"Pretty much, yeah." Wally nods, glancing at the equally surprised Roy. "Miss me Speedo?"

"Well I be damned." Roy smirks upon seeing him, removing his own face mask as he gets down to his level. "Wally West, in the flesh, didn't think I'd see your mug in a while."

"Well, its already been 'a while', but I know math isn't your strong suit." Wally snarks back as the two pull each other into a small hug of sorts. "But yeah, its been too long."

"Someone catch me up, isn't he dead?" Mia asks Oliver.

"His old man is, that, that's Kid Flash, only without the Kid part anymore." Oliver fills her in. "Him and Roy are...close."

"Why? They both part of the league of Gingers?" Mia jokes as the two separate from their hug.

"Founding members." Wally grins. "You must be Lil'Speedy, I've heard so little about you."

"As nice as this little reunion is, can I ask why you're here?" Oliver asks Wally, cutting them short.

"Simple." Wally tells them, before dashing forward. One by one, he pulls the three Arrow-based vigilantes with him to one of Oliver Queen's many bunkers used for hiding his gear, much to the surprise of the two people inside.

"Holly cow Ollie, where did you come from?" A man his age asks in shock, falling from his seat as he appears before being followed by the other two. "How'd you just appear like that."

"I tapped my boots together and said 'no place like home' a couple of times; what Tommy, you never seen the movies?" Oliver mutters, putting away his gear as Wally reapears.

"Sorry about that, figured it'd be better to take this down in your territory." Wally tells him, glancing over and waving at both Tommy, and the other man in the room, with less hair and darker skin.

"Who the hell are you?" They question, pointing a gun at Wally.

"Me? I'm Santa Christ." Wally retorts, before Ollie waves to his friend to put his gun down.

"Diggle, relax, he's a friend." Oliver tells his bodyguard/friend as they slowly lower their weapon. "Now, answers, what is this about? Why are you in Star City?"

"Well, for starters, you read the newspapers?" Wally holds up a paper he seemingly pulled from nowhere, showing the latest poll results for the election, with Luthor currently in the lead.

"Always." Oliver responds. "And what? I'm supposed to care that they're voting in another selfish egoist? It happens a lot Wally."

"Yeah, but there's something about this guy. You remember what happened five years ago?"

"What?" Mia asks, trying to follow what they're talking about.

"Luthor." Tommy answers for them. "He, he basically sold out the earth to an alien invader, then at the last second turned on it and stole all the glory. His presidential campaign's basically because of that."

"And, in doing so, he killed my Uncle." Wally adds, his smile fading slightly. "He killed the first Flash. And that's why I'm trying to stop him."

"What do you expect us to do?" Roy asks, speaking up. "Wally, I get this is personal, but we can't prove what he did."

"No, but we can still reveal to the world what a scumbag he is." Wally tells them. "You remember the Justice League?"

"Forget it." Oliver shoots them down. "There's a reason I didn't join the League years ago, I'm not joining it now. I do things better my own way."

"Your own way that you totally didn't steal from Batman." Wally mumbles, rolling his eyes. "I'm not asking you to join it, I'm asking you to help make it. League's been dead five years, it died with my uncle. But today, I say we bring it back."

"What, Justice League 2, the Flash Strikes Back?" Mia questions.

"You want to make another Justice League?" Roy asks, looking at him sceptically.

"Sounds terrible." Diggle notes.

"Think about it Roy. Remember the Titans?" Wally asks him, ignoring Diggle. "Remember the good we did? We can do it again. But bigger this time."

The others look at Wally with apprehension, not sure if they should listen to him.

"You didn't like how the Justice League worked?" Wally asks Oliver, turning to him. "Don't worry, that's the thing, we'll run things how we want, we'll start small, obviously, but all we need is people. Now, Superman said no, but I have a good feeling about a Green Lantern, and there's someone else I know. Just need your help."

"You'll let us do what we want?" Oliver questions, just making sure he knows what he's in for.

"You fight who you want to fight and help where you want to help, we'll just do it bigger."

"Sounds good to me." Roy shrugs.

"Still sounds terrible." Diggle repeats. "But, terrible never stopped us before."

"Ollie? Up to you." Tommy nudges him.

"I suppose, you'll need a bank account and someone to foot the bill." Ollie shrugs, relenting to the proposal.

"Great! Ollie, Roy,...girl who's name I forgot because I probably wasn't told it, and the other two guys who aren't Spandex-wearing types, welcome to the New Justice League."

...

One Superman was bad enough. Two? That's hell.

Lex Luthor's Emperor may've been shot down, but his other satellites caught enough to give him an idea of what he's facing. Another Kryptonian.

He knows Superman, knows him personally. He grew up with him in fact. But, what he didn't know is how many survived Krypton. Lex Luthor has studied these people intensely since he first picked up trouble with the Kryptonian. He found Kal-El's fortress, found the information it had on Krypton, even found out how he hid for so long on Earth, but he never found his ship. How he came here alluded him; he figured it was a ship of some kind, but he could never track it.

Why did he want this? Pride, mostly, just so he can say that yes, he knows where Kal-El landed, but because of another fear. What if Kal-El wasn't the only survivor? What if others made it to earth, and Superman was the only one bold enough to use his powers openly. If he could find his ship, he could find a way to track any others.

But this second Kryptonian, she gave him this.

Clark may've taken it to STAR Labs for Emil Hamilton to look over, but his satellites picked up enough radiation from the scene to get an idea of what he's looking for.

For the past twelve hours, he's had his other satellites scanning the globe for other objects with a similar radioactive signature. And, he's found some. However, each one, upon being opened up by one of his teams, proves pointless: The ship's life support systems failed, and the being is both dead, and so burnt up by entry into the planet that all that's left are human-like bones and dust that were once its flesh.

But this one, the signature's different. Its stronger, like the source is still on and, maybe, that means whoever flew it is alive. That's why Luthor himself is on this expedition.

In the Canadian wilderness, this ship lies frozen in a field of ice, that his scientists have dated to have been there considerably longer than the others, roughly two years. This one left before the others did, and arrived first.

He's had the ship thawed and pulled out of the ice, allowing him to look at it as the ship and its pilot are both taken away, back to his labs. Inside was a young woman; physically she appears between the ages of 15 and 20, they can't tell for certain. Like the other, she's got blond hair, though longer, and better cared for. Her clothing is alien, seemingly something that looks both futuristic and yet outdated.

The worst part though, is the same shield on the chest: The House of El.

Inside was a small device, similar to what Clark found in the other ship, and one Lex doesn't wait to examine.

As he sits inside the chopper moving the girl, who's kept sedated with a mixture of horse tranquilizers and red sunlight radiation, he looks over the device, quickly activating it by accident.

"I'm not sure if you'll understand me." The object announces a recorded message, initially surprising Lex as a holographic image of a man who, vaguely, resembles Clark. "This is the dominant language of your kind, so I just hope you'll understand when you find this. My name is Zor-El, brother of Krypton's leading scientist. The person inside is my daughter, Kara Zor-El, of Krypton. I hope, whoever finds this are benevolent, and I hope you treat her well. She is the, only, reminder I have left, of her mother, she cannot die with Krypton.

"I promise you, if you love her, if you treat her well, you'll be making the right decision. She is a treasure; my treasure, my only, worthwhile contribution to the world. Please, to the humans who find her, treat her as your own. You will not be making a mistake."

The message ends there, and Lex raises an eyebrow at the video. Zor-El? Is this girl really related to Superman? Could Krypton's only other survivor really be Clark's cousin?

Coincidences are truly a terrible thing. No matter, Lex now has his own Kryptonian.

...

Next time-

Wally scouts for another superhero for his Justice League, the former marine-turned Green Lantern, John Stewart. But, his goals may not be needed, as when Power Girl informs Clark of who she is and where she came from, Clark realizes that, maybe the Justice League is needed after all. Meanwhile, Luthor processes the young Kara Zor-El, as he plans to use her for his goal of destroying superheroes once and for all! How will it turn out? Find Out!

...

Notes:

-Simple and basic idea for how to write this, basically how something like the New 52 or Ultimateverse was intended but not quite executed: A fresh start that's open to both old and new people. The main problem most people seem to have with these two respective books are the fact they're muddled up with a mix of unexplained changes and poorly explained backstories; things like Tim Drake no longer being a lovable nice guy wiz kid or Lois and Clark being unmarried, with Lois especially being a bit of a jerk (and not the likable quirky kind, the kind of jerk who makes derogatory comments about cosplayers). So, yeah, I'm writing from a fresh start, with updated looks and origins, but keeping everyone true to who they are. None of this 'Superman and Wonder Woman dating' or 'Tim was never Robin' crap. As such, Wally's the focus boy here. I freely admit Wally West is my favourite DC character besides Nightwing (If I'd make a top five, I'd say its Dick and Wally tying for first/second, Stephanie Brown just after that, Tim Drake, and Dinah and Oliver fighting for the fifth spot), and one of my biggest gripes about the New 52 is him not being in it. In fact, the only reason I'm not reading the Flash book is because of Wally not being there, despite hearing good words about it (And while I like Barry Allen, and I try to make it clear he's well respected by everyone here, he's just not Wally), so I decided to return to how its been for a while: Barry's dead, Wally's the Flash, Jay's retired, Bart's about to come to the present. The Batfamily's detailed better in my Batman story, the Arrow Family is shown as above, being a mix of pre-Flashpoint Arrow family with the addition of Arrow's Diggle and Tommy, and the Superfamily is sorta how it was just before Kara was introduced with the addition of Chloe Sullivan. Everyone else is basically the same as well as I can make them, though their may be a good number of characters who haven't appeared yet because, frankly, I'm a bigger Marvel fan then I am a DC one, so I don't know every character in existence all that well, BUT I will try to include as many as I can, no matter how obscure, in at least some degree; I don't want to Stephanie anyone after all, and since I don't have many big plans for this, unlike my Marvel stories which mostly have chapters planned for at least another two or three arcs each (hell, my X-Men story has five story arcs of various chapter lengths planned, and since I've decided to avoid filler chapters from now on, I'm hopefully going to get to them quicker then I have done).

-The idea to have Luthor know who Superman really is was because of two reasons: Firstly, it was inspired by both Smallville, where Lex eventually found out his secret, and Spider-Man, where Norman Osborn found out Peter's secret, which I fought would work well for making Luthor a more dangerous threat and make everything more personal. Secondly, because of common sense: Luthor is a mastermind with many connections who may or may not have been Clark's childhood pal depending on the continuity, the idea that he wouldn't recognise him or be able to track him down is actually a little laughable (compare to Man of Steel, where Lois was able to figure out who he was; smart people tend to be smart about this sort of thing). I'd like to think the governments in the DC and Marvel universes are competent enough to find out the real identities of all the big name heroes, since, if you were in charge of the government, wouldn't you want to know the name and identity of the guy dressed like a bat punching out clowns or the guy who can toss the moon around like a dodgeball?

-Chloe Sullivan and Lionel Luthor of _Smallville_ fame are here, as will Tommy Merlyn and John Diggle of _Arrow_. Largely because I really liked these characters and wanted to use them here. I'm also writing both Lois and the Kents as if they were their _Smallville_ counterparts, since that's also my favourite version of those characters (well, the writing of Lois could be dreadful in the show in certain episodes, but Erica Durance nailed Lois' character for me), as well as Roy Harper as if he's his _Arrow_ counterpart and modelling Mia Dearden after Thea Queen, for the same reason. While both shows had their problems, most of the characterization was decent enough and casting was excellent (with exception, still not happy about either the way Deathstroke was handled in the former or how Huntress was handled in the latter; the latter's take on Deathstroke is good though).

-I also went with a slightly different idea for Krypton's destruction. The people weren't stupid, they didn't all just refuse to leave when it was collapsing, and most of them did leave the planet. However, most of the ships didn't escape the blast zone when the planet died. Clark's ship, along with Kara's, are both the only ones that made it, due to being built by Jor-El and Zor-El.

-So, here's the opening plot: Wally wants to bring back the League, Lex Luthor is planning something, and both Power Girl and Supergirl are making their debuts. Supergirl's story is mostly drawing from he Post-Crisis take, but hopefully in a much more nicer form. I didn't like how much of a brat she could be, so she's going to be more like she was after her character development. So yeah, hope you like the character, she's going to be important in this opening few chapters. Saying that, I hope you like Superman or Wally West, becuase they're basically the important characters here.


	2. Welcome to the City of Tomorrow, Part 2

Second chapter, part two of the opening storyline:

…

LexCorp, main lab.

Luthor stands silently, observing the sleeping Kryptonian girl on the other side of a one-way mirror, thinking about what this means.

If she survived, how many other Kryptonians may be alive, hiding somewhere? He feared this before, but now it may actually be true. All the ships seemed to be dead, but who's to say none of them merely killed someone and put their remains in the ship before slipping into human civilization? They could be anywhere.

Humanity wouldn't stand a chance if they revealed themselves. They need a stronger way to combat these aliens, and that's why he needs to become President. With the Kryptonian tech now in his hands, he's been able to reverse engineer some of it, but hopefully with time, they can revolutionize their space travel and exploration efforts, and set themselves up as a galactic empire, one no alien monsters would dare invade. Their armies would be strong enough to handle Kryptonians, New Gods, or any of these other alien races that invade our planet under the guise of benevolence.

And they can use one against them. The creation of Superboy all those years ago was the first step, but with an actual Kryptonian in their hands, one that not only they can manipulate and turn into their own weapon but also use to birth more, they have all they need to build an army of Kryptonian children to raise into their loyal guardians. They could go rogue at any time, but that's why Kryptonite is such a useful prize.

Earth has been home to the Last Son of Krypton, and he's been in Luthor's way for some time. But now Luthor has a weapon against him: The Last _Daughter_ of Krypton.

**Welcome to the City of Tomorrow, Part 2**

Detroit, Michigan.

A small, single room apartment sits almost completely empty, save for the odd mess. The bed is neatly tucked, boxes kept organized and filed away to the side, closet left closed; the only odd detail out is a small table next to the bed, covered in papers, designs for buildings and lesson plans for an architecture class.

A shower is heard coming from an inbuilt bathroom, though it turns off soon, followed by a tall, strongly built man walking out of bathroom, drying himself with a towel. He walks to the desk, seemingly oblivious the figure behind him of Wally West, waiting for the right moment to speak. He glances over his own designs and work, holding his hand out above them as he ruffles through them. Suddenly, a small green ring shoots out of the mess of papers, landing on his ring finger and making his body suddenly glow a green light. He quickly turns around, holding his fist to Wally, glaring at the intruder.

"I don't know who you are, what you want, or why you're here, but if you don't leave, I'm going to break every bone in your body and make you cry for your mo-"

"And I thought you Lantern guys didn't like to put fear into people." Wally smirks, stepping into the light. "Wally West."

"I'm supposed to know who you are?"

"Probably not, but I know who you are, John Stewart." Wally announces, holding up his own ring. "And I've got a fancy ring too."

Upon noticing the yellow colour of the ring, Stewart tenses up and his glare intensifies, though Wally merely grins, as the ring opens up and the fibres of his suit expand, covering him in his red and yellow speedster suit.

"Don't worry, not a Sinestro Corp freak, I'm a Flash." Wally explains. "I'm not sure how much you know about earth heroes, you don't spend a lot of time on the planet, but you should know of my uncle, Barry Allen."

"Whatever you want, there's other Lanterns here, bring it up with them." Stewart tells him, lowering his hand.

"Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner are off world, I checked, and Guy Gardner, he through a TV in my face." Wally explains, sitting down. "But, despite that, I need a Lantern. I'm putting together a team, and we need people like you. We can't exactly have a superhero team and not include a Green Lantern, it'd break logic."

"You mean, a Superhero team? Like what, the Avengers?"

"I was thinking a team not from a bunch of comic books, like the Justice League." Wally retorts, oblivious to the irony of that.

"Shouldn't you be wearing an eyepatch when you make this offer?" John questioned, raising his eyebrow.

"Please, my eyes are too pretty, it'd be a crime to cover them up." Wally smirked. "Seriously though, we need a guy like you."

"Huh, sure Gardner was a no?" Stewart asks as he thinks over his answer.

"After the TV, he also tossed a closet at me. Pretty sure that's a no."

"Well, don't really leave me much choice." Stewart sighed. "Can't really let you go about this by yourselves, and frankly, the idea of a superhero team isn't too bad."

"Perfect!" Wally smiles, patting his fist into his hand. "Well, like I told Green Arrow, John Stewart, welcome to the new Justice League."

"Great." John nodded. "Huh, now I already regret it."

...

"Well, she's Kryptonian."

Clark listens as he stands in STAR labs, listening as Emil Hamilton, a doctor who Clark has known and trusted since before he was Superman, looks over the injured, though healing, Kryptonian woman.

"In fact, she's very Kryptonian, if that makes sense. Her DNA is almost completely identical to yours. I think she's a blood relative, most likely a first cousin."

"Any idea where she came from? How did she know me?" Clark questions his friend.

"Well, the radiation on her ship appears to indicate she went through a dimensional portal. Its possible she was in the Phantom Zone, or maybe somewhere else."

"What about the device she had with her?" Clark asks, floating over to the small piece of metal.

"Haven't looked at it yet. Careful, it appears to be-" Emil starts, only to be interrupted by Clark accidentally starting it.

The device lights up showing a holographic image of, to their surprise, Clark himself, though with a somewhat different looking attire and dress. He's unshaven, his hair greying and unkempt, and his suit now solid white.

"Clark? This is going to be confusing." The older Clark tells his younger self as he's joined by a hologram of the Kryptonian woman. "But, I guess I should start at the beginning. I'm you, and this, is Karen. Like you, she was born on Krypton, as Kara Zor-El. She's our cousin, she's the last daughter of Krypton, and right now, you're going to need her help.

"War is coming. Lex Luthor, you cannot let him become president. And if you don't stop it, people will die." The future Clark warns him. "I believe right now Wally West should be about to form his own Justice League. Don't let him do it alone. If Luthor isn't stopped, he'll turn this world into a hell hole."

To illustrate this point, the hologram shows the remains of society, with the streets burnt and the buildings torn down, robots of alien origin patrolling the roads as the few remaining metahumans hide in the shadows.

"He will stop at nothing to kill all the metahumans, and that includes us." Old!Superman adds, as the hologram starts to fuzz.

"Looks like we're shorting out, we better make this quick." Hologram!Karen tells them. "Clark, I'm going to see you soon. Don't be too freaked out, I'll explain anything you need when you find me."

"Huh, hate those cameras." A voice catches both Clark and Emil by surprise as the hologram shuts off, drawing their attention to the, now waking up, Karen Starr, Power Girl.

"What is this? Where are you from?" Clark questions.

"This, this is how the world's going to look if you don't stop it going down the crapper." Karen starts bluntly. "I'm from another world, another universe, one that's a bit ahead of here. Think of it as 'Earth 2', and I'm here to try and save your world from it."

"Why? Why are you here to help us?" Emil asks. "Theoretically, how does saving this world benefit yours? From what I can tell, your world needs you."

"Not anymore." Karen explains, putting her knees up and resting against them. "We already beat Lex and all his friends in our world, sent them to our Phantom Zone and left them there to rot. But, before we did, our Luthor tried to escape into other worlds, including this one. We're not sure what he accomplished, but we fear he might've influenced this world. So, I came here to find it, stop it, and maybe save your world while its still save-able."

"So...you're my cousin?" Clark asks, kneeling down to look her in the eye.

"In a, six degrees of Kevin Bacon way, yeah." Karen nods. "Wait, that's something."

"What?"

"Me, uh, my self from this world." Karen remembers. "She's still in Canada."

"Wait, she's...you're in Canada?" Clark questions.

"That's where my ship landed. I got frozen and trapped in the woods; no one found me for another year or so, so I should still be there." Karen explains, getting up. "We should find me."

"That we should." Cark nodded in agreement, stepping to the side to let her move.

"Wait, I haven't finished running-" Emil tries to stop them, but they both fly off before he can. "I should have seen that coming."

The two Kryptonians fly quickly across the states, getting to Canada quickly.

They fly to the location of where she crashed, finding, to their horror, Luthor's men already at the site, and the ship already gone.

"Oh no." Karen covers her mouth in horror, as Clark places a hand on her shoulder, clenching his fist. Luthor's got his own Kryptonian.

...

Meanwhile, in LexCorp's main laboratory for dealing with metahumans, Luthor watches as the Kryptonian girl, currently curled up in a steel room with machines monitoring her every movement, waits patiently to find out where she is.

"Physically, Kryptonians are identical to humans, right down to the smallest details like belly buttons and eyelashes." A lone scientist, Doctor Dabney Donovan, explains to Luthor once they were done analyzing her form. "Their skeletomuscular system is almost completely identical, though their cells are denser and stronger, so even without their powers Kryptonians are stronger than humans. Their brains, and pretty much every organ is reasonably identical too, who with some differences in their complexity and exact position. Had it not been for her DNA, any other doctor would assume she was a normal human girl with some minor internal deformities; in fact even there, they'd probably assume she was just a metahuman."

"Thanks for the Exposition doctor, but that's not what I wanted." Luthor responds as he turns to face the doctor. "Her DNA. How do we recreate these things?"

"Well, we're still mapping her DNA, which itself is actually rather similar, in fact it makes you wonder if we may've had a mutual ancestor of some kind or if our form is just the most evolutionarily useful." Doctor Donovan informs him while reading his notes. "On topic, the main difference is the presence of these proteins in her bloodstream; they appear crystal-like in nature, but they absorb sunlight and radiation, and store it for use; I'll be experimenting with her blood to find the full use."

"Anything else?"

"Their eyes also seem to hide smaller organs, capable of channeling this energy. My guess is that these organs are what allow them to control and shape this energy, which explains why so many of their known powers and channeled through their eyes."

"Yes or no, doctor. Can we make more?"

"Theoretically, if we can map the genes for her eyes, we can reverse engineer it and put it into humans." Donovan answers.

"And the crystals?"

"Yes, them, I was thinking, could be grown artificially, and just injected into the genetically engineered users." The scientist explains his idea. "This way, instead of keeping them locked up and risking them becoming unwilling to work, we could let them live their lives, and when needed, be injected by the crystals, they'd quickly become superpowered."

"Hm, interesting idea, Dr Donovan." Luthor nods. "Any idea what the crystals would do in human blood without these organs?"

"I'll analyse that now sir."

"Do so, consider yourself dismissed." Luthor tells him, getting a nod in reply before he sinks off, passing a glowing humanoid figure approaching Luthor.

"Huh, look at her. What we going to get from someone like her?" The being questions Luthor with a grunt, looking the young Kara over. Major Clifford Zmeck, now known as Major Force, is one of LexCorp's best combat agents, and one of the most asocial and amoral; had it not been for Luthor knowing how to kill him and his fellow energy being, Captain Atom, or the fact he lets him kill who and when he wants, its unlikely he'd think twice before killing Luthor for no reason beyond amusement.

"She's a Kryptonian. If she gets any of our sun's energy, she could tear this entire base apart." Luthor told him, returning his gaze back to the lab. "What we're 'going to get' is both a usable agent against Superman, once she's trained, and a better insight into Krypton."

"She's just a kid." Another voice joins them, as the other half of the project, Captain Nathan 'Captain Atom' Adams, arrived down the hallway, his body radiating the same energy as Force was. "She doesn't even look old enough to drink, why is she here?"

"It doesn't matter how old she is, at the end of the day, she's a god compared to us." Luthor informs him, turning again once more to her. "And we need to keep her here until we can control that."

"This is wrong." Captain Atom decides, muttering to himself.

"And not your job to judge, so shut up and go find something else to do." Force barked at his reluctant partner, who merely glared as his response, watching as Force lights up a cigar, using his own hand as a lighter, then chomping on it and turning back to the confused girl.

"Captain Atom, get Henshaw, tell him to beef up security and channel more red sun rays into the complex, and get some Kryptonite sent to the lab." Luthor tells him, getting a small nod as a reply before Captain Atom disappears to do as told. "Force, keep watch here, I'm going to speak with her."

"Fine by me." Force nods, crossing his arms as he keeps watch on the room as Luthor enters it.

"Hello?" Lex speaks softly as he approaches the young Kryptonian, making her instantly turn to face him, the dart to the opposite side of the lab.

"Stay back!" She demands, trying to find an opening.

"Relax." Luthor told her, holding a hand out to calm her down, and using the other to press a control to disperse a relaxing toxin into the air to keep her calm. Slowly, she starts to slow down, lowering to a crouch on the floor. "You speak English?"

"It was the most common language on this planet; my father taught me it before he sent me here." She explains, keeping her gaze to the floor.

"Your father, Zor-El?" Luthor asks as he approaches her, making her shy away from him, nodding slightly at his question. "I watched the video he attached to the shuttle you came in. I can tell he loved you."

"He died, didn't he?" The young girl questions, glancing up at him. "My uncle Jor tried to warn people about it, my father told me not to worry, but then he had the ship built and he sent me hear. Krypton's dead, isn't it?"

"Yes." Luthor nods, trying to fake sadness. "I am sorry for your loss...Kara, is it? You are safe now though."

"Why, why can't I fly?" Kara asks, hugging her knees. "I was told I'd be able to fly on Earth."

"I wish I knew." Lex lies, kneeling down next to her. "I can help find out for you."

"That'd be nice." Kara smiled, glancing back to him, brushing her hair out of her eyes and tucking it behind her ear.

"Least we can do. I'll try to keep things comfortable for you." Lex patted her on the back, getting up and heading back to join Major Force.

"Wait, my cousin." Kara stops him. "Uncle Jor talked about sending his son, my cousin Kal-El, to Earth. Has he arrived yet?"

Lex smiles pleasantly to her, then turns to look apologetically. "I'm sorry, Kal-El is dead."

With that, he continues to walk out of the lab, closing and locking the door behind her as she processes what's happened to her.

...

Gotham City, _Dinah's Flower Shop_, a small establishment founded by Dinah Drake, former founding member of the Justice Society, to make a living outside of her superhero career. Currently, the owner and primary server is Dinah Laurel Lance. To most, that name is mildly interesting, but nothing major. To the world of superheroes, its synonymous with the moniker of the Black Canary, a woman renowned for both her incredible superpower, and her almost unmatched combat skill. She could be wearing a ballgown and ten inch heels, with both her arms tied behind her back, and you'd still be asking for a serious ass kicking if you challenged her.

Today was a slow day, nothing major, and Dinah was able to sit back at the counter, reading some case reports. Most people would just browse the internet for these, but the last time she touched a computer, it exploded (and she's not sure how), so she's sticking to the basics. Fortunately, as daughter of a high ranking police officer, one who isn't happy-though nonetheless supportive of her side job, getting these is easy enough.

"Excuse me, are you guys open?" A customer asks the dark haired woman, drawing her attention to a figure who looks mildly familiar, but she can't quite identify. Its been a few years since she's seen Wally though, so that's understandable.

"Yeah, we are." Dinah got up, brushing the case files underneath some magazines and getting up to see to him. "What can we do for you?"

"Well, I'm looking for something to give to a woman." Wally tells her, getting a cocked eyebrow in response.

"Well, flowers are usually an option." Dinah shrugs. "This a birthday, anniversary, asking out, what?"

"Well, hard to explain. She's a woman who, well, I haven't seen her in years, and, right now, I'm looking to set up this thing, and I need someone like her on board, so I'm trying to get something to approach her with."

"Huh, well, you'll need something eye catching and memorable." Dinah nods, turning away and stepping onto a stool to get some flowers kept on a shelf of some kind. Wally watches as she does so, glancing down at her body briefly as she stretches to reach for it. She notices him do so, rolling her eyes at it. "Typical."

Wally rubs the back of his head as he waits. Its probably only a few seconds, but to him, that feels like minutes, hours, sometimes days. "Need help?"

"No thanks." Dinah told him as she grabbed them, jumping down right in front of him, holding them up. "That'll be five dollars."

"Right." Wally nods, reaching into his pocket for his wallet, handing her some money.

"This is fifty dollars."

"Consider it a thanks." Wally shrugs with a light smirk. "Get yourself something to knock the fellas out with. Like, a fancy dress, or a metal baton, whichever you'd prefer."

"I'll keep that in mind." She smirks back, turning to walk back behind the register. He's incredibly corny and looks like the kind of guy who hits on everything in a skirt, or at least takes a lingering stare at, but admittedly, he's a fairly nice man.

And surprising, as when she sits down, he turns around and holds the flowers into her face.

"Hi, I'm not sure if you remember me Dinah, I mean, I was 15 last time I saw you, and might I add you haven't aged a bit, you still look like the first woman I ever had a crush on, but, anyway, I'm planning something big, and I need a gal like you to make it work."

"...excuse me?" Dinah just blinks in response.

"Right, forgot." Wally hits himself in the head, lookin at his hand and pressing the flash ring, bringing his suit on. "Not sure if you remember me, but, Wally West, former Kid Flash."

"Wally West?" Dinah raises her eyebrows, slowly remembering him. "Little Wally West? The kid that followed Barry around like a puppy?"

"Little hurtful that that's how you remember me, but yeah." He laughs a bit. "Long time no see."

"This is, unreal, how you been?" Dinah asks, pulling him into a hug. "You got tall."

"I noticed. I've been fine; a little bummed about the fact my uncle, mentor, idol, and father figure kinda got killed, and the man responsible is set to become comander in chief, but after that, I've been awesome."

"So, I'm the girl you wanted to buy flowers for?" Dinah lets him go, holding her eyebrow high still as she processes what he wants.

"Well, actually I was buying them for Nightwing, but now that I think about it, a winning smile should win him over." He jokes, handing them back to her. "Yeah, here you go."

"What's this for? What are you wanting me for? Is this like the time you asked me to your school dance?"

"Well, that depends on how fond a memory that was." Wally shrugs. "Basically, how do you feel about making a new Justice League?"

"That would depend." Dinah states. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, Luthor's a monster, we can agree on that, right?" Wally asks.

"I'll agree to that."

"Then I think you can understand that the idea of him becoming President is a horrible idea. I want to take him down, but to do it, we need a League. I've got a few people already, but come on, you make Navy SEALs look like mall cops, I need you on the team."

"Why me? Why not, Batman, or any other martial artist?"

"Well, I can't steal glances at Batman's rear, can I?" Wally smirks, getting a glare from her. "Kidding, seriously, I didn't mean that literally, but the point is, you're awesome. When I rank people on the awesome meter, you're right at number nine, just after Barry, and just before Teddy Roosevelt. I need you on the team because you're the best fighter I know...and Batman doesn't like flowers."

"Alright, I'll give it a shot." Dinah shrugs, earning a happy smile from Wally. "Where do I sign?"

...

Back at the Watchtower, Chloe, Lois, and Clark wait impatiently as a small group of heroes arrive. With Karen sat by the side, Clark scans the room for all the familiar faces.

Most prominently, Diana of Themyscira, also known as Wonder Woman, the diplomat and guardian of truth, who stood waiting for the others to arrive. She stands, waiting for them to start talking, avoiding expressing any sign of boredom.

Next to her, Martian Manhunter, the only other founding member of the Justice League to be present, and known as alternatively either J'onn J'onzz, the last surviving Green Martian, and John Jones, a Metropolis Detective.

Staying to the side and out of the way, Bruce Wayne, the Dark Knight Detective known as the Batman, stays mostly in the shadows, avoiding any contact with others.

To the side, two teenaged heroes talk; one, the young boy who most instantly recognize as a blood relative of Clark: Conner 'Kon-El' Kent, known informally as Superboy, the protector of Smallville, and the other, the patriotic-looking Courtney Whitmore, formerly known as the Star-Spangled Kid, she's now settled on the mantle of Stargirl.

"No sign of him." Another figure announces as he returns to the group after looking out for any sign of Wally. The former, and arguably the best, Robin the Boy Wonder of Gotham, Dick Grayson, now known as Nightwing.

"Good enough I suppose." Clark sighed, before stepping before the group of heroes. "People, may I have your attention?"

"Only if there's free food after this." Conner jokes, making Courtney snicker next to him.

"Please don't interrupt when someone's talking, don't make me have to take away your TV privileges." Clark warns his brother/clone/son/something, making him pipe down. "Now, we're hear for something important. The Justice League."

"Clark, after Barry..." Diana starts, but Clark holds a hand up.

"I know, and this morning, I said the same thing when I was asked this question, but things have changed." Clark tells her, turning to Karen. "This is Karen Starr, she is my cousin, from an alternate universe who came here to warn us about the end of humanity if we don't act soon."

"How is it we live in a world where someone can say that sentence and I don't immediately want to call the nut house?" Dick asks one of the others, getting no response.

"Karen?" Clark motions for her to join him.

"I can't really put this into words, Clark's the one who's good at speeches." Karen admits as she takes the stage, holding the Kryptonian playing device. "Fortunately, my world's Clark did make a speech for me."

She holds up the device, playing the footage shown before and repeating it to them. The group of heroes look on in horror as they're told of what happened to Earth 2, shown the images of the world's end, before the image fuzzes out once more.

"That...sucks." Dick speaks up for the group.

"Can you validate that this is the truth?" Bruce asks, speaking up.

"I'm right here, aren't I?" Karen retorts. "Aren't I proof enough?"

"No." Bruce growls, turning back to Clark.

"Emil confirmed it, she's my cousin. And for that, I trust her." Clark answers Bruce's original question, placing a hand on Karen's shoulder.

"So, Luthor's about to do something stupid, and the second he's president, we're all $^&ed?" Conner asks, getting a nod from the two. "Well, this is perfect."

"Now, I know many of you, the ones around at the time, you all probably have some issues with the idea of reforming the Justice League, we were all pretty badly affected by Barry's death. But we can't-"

"We can't spend any time wasted discussing it." Diana cuts him off. "If this is true, we need to act now."

"Her message is the truth, and I sense we don't have much time." J'onn adds.

"So, this it? Just like that, we're the Justice League?" Conner asks, glancing at them.

"For now." Clark tells him, before turning back to Bruce. "How about you?"

"Do you have to ask?" Bruce, almost, gives him a smile as he nods.

"Probably not." Clark smiles back, glancing over to the others, making sure they were all agreeing to the idea and, with them all appearing supportive, turns back to Chloe, who sits on a computer checking various things. "Wally appeared up yet?"

"Nope, haven't picked him up since earlier." Chloe answers, leaning closer to the computer as she continues her search. "You'd think he of all people would show up to this."

"How well do we trust this kid?" Lois asks the two.

"He's like family." Clark tells Lois in a simple manner with a small shrug.

"Clark, anyone wearing spandex is like family to you." Lois replies, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Still, if he's here to help, what could he be doing that's more important than-"

"Hold that thought." Chloe interrupts as the computer begins to buzz a bit. "Someone's trying to get inside. And its not someone we know."

"Who?" Lois asks, looking over her cousin's shoulder.

"Someone who, evidently, thinks they're cute." Chloe replies, typing on the computer as she looks at a CCTV image. "Huh, its...a Green Lantern."

"Hal?" Clark asks, before pausing when he hears something on the roof.

"No, one of the other ones." Chloe shows them the image of John Stewart, though Clark looks up, trying to figure out the noise on the roof.

"Should we let him in?" Dick asks as he joins them.

"It'd be an idea." The source of the roof noise answers, as Green Arrow enters through the window, followed by Red Arrow and Speedy.

"Oliver?" Clark raises an eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"

"Wally West, told us to meet him here." Oliver answers, removing his hood and the mask to look them in the eyes. "And, I assume the same with the Green Lantern, and I'm pretty sure I saw what looked like Black Canary heading here on her motorbike, so she's probably with us too. Question I have, why are all you here?"

"This is kinda my apartment." Chloe answers. "And the fact its also the default superhero club house that even people I only casually know are sending heroes to meet here, just shows that my social life is just that quirky."

"Wally was evidently hoping he could borrow it." Clark mutters, before noticing Chloe's face. "Chloe?"

"Yeah, he already, kinda got permission." Chloe shrugs. "He asked me earlier to help him set up his own Justice League after you said no."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"He thought you'd shut him down so he asked me not to say anything." Chloe shrugs. "I figured I'd let you know if things got out of hand."

"Well, where is he now?"

"He told me he'd be out asking for every hero he could find." Chloe answers.

"Well, who else did he have in mind?" Clark asks her, getting a shrug in reply.

...

"Captain Atom!"

Nathan Adams turns to see the figure of Wally West, resting against a wall.

The two of them stand in one of LexCorp's many lab rooms, Captain Atom waiting to speak to Hank Henshaw, and obviously surprised to see the Scarlet Speedster.

"You? You're..."

"Dead? Yeah, getting that a lot." Wally shrugs, taking off the mask. "Wally West, former Kid Flash, current Adjectiveless Flash."

"What are you doing here, Mister West? You don't have any clearance here. You shouldn't be here."

"And neither should you. You're a good soldier, and from what I've heard, a damn good man too. Luthor's evil. He's so evil that I'm pretty sure he keeps a crate filled with kittens just so he has a ready supply to eat when he's bored."

"He's also the one responsible for how I got my powers, and I'm contracted to work for him." Captain Atom answers with a sigh.

"He's a killer and a psychopath." Wally repeats. "He killed my Uncle Barry, and countless others. God knows what else he's doing."

Captain Atom tries to think of a response, but is caught in thought.

"Wait, you know something." Wally notices. "What's he up to?"

"Luthor, he has a girl here."

"Uh, what?"

"A girl, a Kryptonian. He found her frozen in Canada." Captain Atom explains. "I'm not entirely sure what he's planning, don't know if he just wants her DNA or something, but he's looking to use her to make weapons. She can't be any older than 18."

"That son of a..." Wally mutters. "You can't let him do this."

"I don't want to but, as part of the Captain Atom program, he's got a control, it can turn me into an Atomic bomb at the push of a button. If I try to sell him out, or turn him over, I'm dead, and so is everyone for ten miles out."

"Well, that would suck." Wally nods. "Where's the girl? If you can get help, I'll destroy the device and get her free."

"I'm not sure, I don't think you can..."

"Don't worry, I'm the Fastest Man Alive, I'll be fine." Wally tells him, making Captain Atom think about this for a moment, until they hear a door open.

Hank Henshaw, a man trapped inside a robot double of Superman and one who's since developed an obsessive hatred of superheroes, enters, looking at an open panel on his left arm as he walks in, glancing up to look at them, turning back to his arm, before clicking on what he saw and looking back up, just in time to be punched in his metal face by Wally.

"Go!" Wally yelled to Captain Atom. "Go find Superman, I'll deal with this."

"West, you can't-"

"GO!" Wally repeats, moving as Henshaw tries to grab him.

"I'll get help!" Captain Atom told him before flying forward, crashing into Henshaw before making his way out, buying Wally a few seconds before Henshaw recovers.

Wally darts through the lab complex, searching every room as fast as he can. His speed allowing him to do so without being seen, he searches every room he can for the machine or the Kryptonian girl.

Henshaw recovers soon after and quickly follows him, blasting Wally with his heated eye beams and knocking him through a wall. As Wally gets up, the Cyborg-Superman kicks him in the ribcage, knocking him into the ceiling, smashing through it and landing in the story above.

"Take note, intruder in sector B." Henshaw tells the security system as he flies back up, grabbing Wally and smashing him back down into the floor they came from, making him crash through the floor and land two stories down. "Correction, Sector D…no, now E. Sector E."

As Henshaw flies back down to deal with Wally, the Scarlet Speedster is already pulling himself back together, and dodging the attack. Wally's speed makes him stronger, but he's nothing compared to Henshaw, so he needs to think fast.

Fortunately, doing things fast is kind-of his shtick. He just needs to think something simple to work out how to beat him.

Wally moves out of the way of another attack, grabbing Henshaw and spinning him around to disorient him. As he does so, Wally runs circles around him, literally. Faster, faster, he creates a small, though powerful and yet controlled tornado of sorts, and enough static cling to magnetize Henshaw to the ground, though he still keeps spinning. As Wally keeps running, the magnetic energy gets worse, inducing a gravitational pull that attracts the entire hallway's metal contents, from its odd tables and doors, to the metal plating of the walls, all of which begin to shake as they're pulled at by the invisible force.

And then, when it gets too much, Wally leaps to the floor, covering his head as the metal objects fly at the spinning and out of control Henshaw, smashing into him and trapping him in place.

"Ha, don't believe it worked." Wally muses, rolling onto his back and waiting for his injuries to heal. Barry did that trick once, against Metallo; Wally watched him do it, but he never quite figured out how it worked, he just had to think like Barry does to work it out. Five years on, Barry's still showing him the ropes.

Wally pulls himself up, resting against a wall. All that running, complete with the jump to the floor, sprained his foot. He'll be fine, he heals quicker so long as he keeps moving, but its going to slow him down. And with LexCorp agents heading his way, he doesn't have time to be slow.

Wally races down the hall, cringing in pain as he starts searching every room of the building. He doesn't have a map or any way to find one, so this is his best solution.

Unfortunately, doing so generates a large amount of energy from the Speed Force in which his powers come from. Energy, which Major Force picks up on.

As he looks for the trigger, he comes across a glass wall to his right as he runs down, glancing for a nanosecond inside and spotting an upset young girl. She's maybe five, six years younger than himself, eight at most, roughly around the age of that new kid Batman has hanging around, or that clone of Superman he has living with his folks in Smallville. And Luthor is keeping her around like a labrat.

As Wally looks around for a way in, a fist collides with his cheekbone, knocking him into the opposite wall.

As Wally rubs his cheek, he eyes the smirking Major Force. This sucks; this is the guy who can go two-to-two with Green Lanterns and not have a big deal, he's a bit out of his league here.

Still, he just took down Henshaw, maybe he has a chance? If he can build up enough momentum, he can maybe knock the guy out or something. So, he pulls himself up, eyeing the energy being as he just waits there, lighting up another cigar, watching as Wally pulls himself up.

Wally glares, darting to the side and getting ready to run, only to find himself unable to move his legs.

"Yeah, any idea what I can do? I'm a being of pure energy." Major Force grins, walking around the frozen Wally. "I can generate it, take it, control it, or just not let others use it. Not sure where you're getting the energy from, but you're not touching it."

Wally tries to toss an insult at him, but finds himself unable to move his mouth, or his throat, or anything to shape his words.

"Heh, G'Night." Force taunts before punching him again, making him black out and fall to the floor.

It doesn't take long for Luthor and the others to arrive, and when they do, Wally's not awake to defend himself.

...

"Prisoner secure?" Lex asks some guards as he watches Wally being locked inside a cell of some kind, one with a plastic dome surrounding it to keep him inside, complete with an electrical current on the floor to atop him walking over it.

"Metal's strongest we could get, forcefield reinforces it, everything's cut off inside this dome, and the current is enough to toast a whale in under a minute. He's a rat in a cage right now, Mister Luthor." The guard explains, watching with him as his underlings secure him and set up counter measures in case he tries to escape. "Don't know why you don't just kill him."

"Because, I need to know exactly what he knows, and why he came here." Luthor responds, glancing away from him. "These superheroes tend to stay in contact, with their 'Oracles' and heir 'Watchtowers', who knows how much he got out."

"Well, we'll keep you posted." The guard nodded, walking away as Luthor glanced back to his prisoner.

Slowly, Wally's eyes began to open as he wakes from his unwanted slumber.

He's in a metal room, a cell of some kind, looks like they've put a lot into keeping him here. Maybe if he can vibrate his molecules fast enough he can pass through them; might destroy the bars and all, but its not like he cares.

"I wouldn't try escaping right now, if I were you." Lex announces as he stands outside the dome, watching as the Flash recovers and realizes where he is. "I'm not sure why you thought you could visit my lab any time you liked, but your kind do have a knack for assuming you can do what you like."

"Could say the same about you." Wally retorts as he gets up. "Of course, I just break into places, I don't murder people in cold blood or cause general chaos for giggles."

"I'm sorry, you talk like you know me, and I'm pretty sure we haven't met."

"Right, pardon that." Wally pulls off his mask. "Wally West, Fastest Man Alive."

"Hm, funny, I'm pretty sure someone else claimed that title, and I don't think their name was Waldo, or whatever you said."

"Yeah, I think you're talking about Barry Allen, the Flash, my uncle." Wally explains, taking a step and falling to the floor, clutching his side. "Yeah, might remember me, I wore a lot of yellow, ran around with him. Called myself Kid Flash, looking back, it was a stupid name, but it works when you're a kid."

"Hah, let me guess, you're using his title and costume in an attempt to honour his legacy? I have to admit, Mister West, that's actually rather creepy." Luthhor kneels down, watching in amusement as Wally struggles to stand. "Most people don't steal the identity of the people they admire when they die."

"Most people don't betray their people and side with a destructive alien force, than turn on them to look like a hero." Wally shoots back.

"Hm, cute." Lex smirks. "Take it you're still mad about the Anti-Monitor incident then? Of course, your Uncle died during that, such a shame. I admit, for a freak of nature, he seemed like a nice guy."

"You murdered him!" Wally snarls, changing his tone. "You, and the beings you sided with, they killed him. Its why I brought back the League, to put you behind bars where you belong."

"Bold accusation. And your evidence for this?" Lex grins in smug satisfaction as Wally turns away. "Exactly. You see, I'm a business man, and a good one at that. I could've been keeping Bin Laden in my sock drawer and I'd know how to cover it up. And, unfortunately for you, we live by a, 'innocent until proven guilty' way of living in this country. If you're telling the truth, and 'the League' is back, they can't do anything. As far as anyone can tell, I'm an innocent man."

"So, the girl in the other room. She doesn't look like someone an innocent man would keep in a cage. What's the plan?"

Luthor merely rolls his eyes, turning to leave him when he gets a message from his agents. No sign of any communications coming from the base while he was invading. He's here alone. He dies, the info he's got dies with him.

And like all great villains, this makes him cocky.

"If you must know, that girl is a Kryptonian, just like Superman; their genetic structure holds many secrets, so I'm keeping it here for study."

That 'it' is a _she_, and she has a name. Admittedly I don't know what her name is, but the decent thing is to at least give her respect."

"Hm, typical." Lex rolls his eyes. "'She' is an alien, a being that does not belong in our world, and when I have the chance, her kind will not be welcome on this planet. Be they Kryptonians, Martians, or any other kind of little green man that thinks this planet is a hotel. And your kind, the metahumans, they will be put in their place and under my command as our loyal sentries, and any that tries to stop me, they shall crumble."

"Why? What gives you the right to decide who's welcome on this planet?" Wally questions as he pulls himself back onto his feet.

"Why, the fact I can see the threat they pose. The public may love them, the governments may be jealous of them, and the humble bafoons may view them as gods, but I, I see what your kind can do." Lex explains, glancing away. "I am the one who builds the walls to keep you in place, I am the one who pulls the trigger when its needed, and does what needs to be done to keep humanity safe from your anarchy. The public may not know, but as God intended, it is I, Lex Luthor, the one who killed the Flash, and broke apart the Justice League, who saves them every time he acts, and, once more, I'll do it again."

"Yeah, great story." Wally claps his hands, picking up a packet of potato chips and munching on them. "Real impressive."

"...Where did you get those?"

"Oh, these?" Wally holds up the chips. "Yeah, I can move through objects, if I'm fast enough; I've escaped like, four or five times while we were talking. It helps to do something, like falling to the floor, but yeah, I can do it without people noticing. These I got from your employee cafeteria. I also got this tape recorder, just recorded that nice little speech you just made."

"What?" Luthor looks baffled as Wally holds up said tape recorder.

"Yeah, villains always talk more, tell you what you want to know if they think you're trapped." Wally claims. "I admit, you put a lot into keeping me here, but you're good with control.

"Like, this?" Wally holds up a small device, making Luthor check his pockets. "Yeah, this, I believe, is what you use to keep Captain Atom under your thumb, yeah, that's gone."

"You smug bastard." Lex draws out a gun as Wally smashes the device.

"Yeah, and this, I believe, is your ammo clip." Wally tosses it into the electrified floor.

Lex tries to shoot, but nothing happens.

"This, I believe is your wallet." Wally holds up said wallet, before drawing something else out. "And this? I just swiped it this second, no idea what it does, looks like a pen. Oh, is it what you use to make your scalp so shiny?"

"How?" Luthor questions, dropping the gun as he backs away.

"I told you Luthor." Wally smirks, before dashing forward.

What is an instant to us feels like an hour to him, as he moves, carefully, each one of his own atoms around those of the bars; once or twice they collide, causing parts of the bars to crack and weaken as he passes. He steps over the electrical current, moving too fast for the electricity to even register he's in contact, before moving onto the forcefield.

The shield is made of wave of energy shooting up constantly, with little to no break, so he's lucky to pass just as the small sliver of time in between waves passes, before moving onto the dome.

He could repeat the same practice used on the bars and what he's done in the past few times, but, its just more dramatic to smash through it, exploding the reinforced plastic out of his way as he stops right in front of the shocked, stunned Luthor.

"I'm the Fastest Man Alive." Wally continues his smirk as Luthor turns to escape, only to run right into Wally again, who constantly moves to block off every attempted exit. "You're not escaping this time Luthor."

"What are you going to do?" Luthor smirks. "You're not going to kill me, we both know that, and with-"

Luthor is silenced by a solid headbutt to the nose.

"Wanted to do that for SO damn long!" Wally grins as Luthor falls to the floor. "I'd stick around to gloat, but, you're unconscious so, thanks for letting me crash here, I'll be on my way."

With that, Wally leaves him there, scouting out the area as fast as he can.

...

Watchtower.

"Can't hear him." Clark mutters as he floats just above the tower, listening out for any sign of Wally. "He's either not moving at all, which is unlikely, or he's trapped somewhere behind lead."

"You can take a break Clark, I can take over looking for him." Karen tells him as she floats up to join him.

"This doesn't make any sense." Clark mutters. "Even when he's moving as fast as he does, I can at least hear him moving. Where could he be?"

"How is Wally anyway?" Dick asks the others. "I haven't seen the guy in so long."

"He's pretty much the same as always." Roy shrugs. "Which is a good thing, I think."

"I'm not sure, he seemed, oddly different. Like he was on a mission. I've never seen him like that." Clark notes as he lowers down to join them, before a sound catches his ears.

Captain Atom flies fast through the city, searching for the Kryptonian, flying over the Watchtower.

"Nathan?" Clark flies up to join him, meeting him half way.

"Superman? Thank god." Captain Atom sighs, slowing to a stop. "Need your help."

"Hey! Get back!" Karen yells, flying at the Captain, punching him across the jaw.

"Karen! Don't! He's a friend." Superman tells her, stopping her before she flies after him as the Captain stops himself, returning to them.

"He's one of Luthor's flunkies!" Karen objects, trying to punch again.

"Not since two hours ago. Man you guys are hard to find." Nathan notes as nurses his jaw. "Girlfriend?"

"Cousin." The two reply in union, both mutually making a disgusted face.

"Really? Are you cousins with every Kryptonian on earth?"

"Every? You've seen more than us?" Clark questions, raising an eyebrow.

"That's what I'm here about." Nathan explains. "Your cousin, I think she said her name was Kara, Luthor has her."

"We knew that, in fact we were waiting for the Flash to show up so we can coordinate a rescue." Karen explains to him.

"Well, too late. The Flash came to LexCorp a while ago, he broke in looking for me."

"He did? Why?"

"This Justice League thing, he wanted my help but, I told him about the girl, told him how Luthor was keeping me loyal. He told me to get you and he'd deal with it. I figured he'd be back by now given how fast he is."

"So...The Flash is in-" Karen starts, before Clark dashes off.

"What's going on?" Diana asks as she flies up to join them, watching as Superman dashes off.

"Long story Princess." Karen sighs.

...

LexCorp.

Kara sits on the bed, curled up, waiting for another visitor. In the past few hours since she's been here, every forty five minutes the same doctor comes in to take a blood sample. They take a bigger amount each time, and in doing so, its starting to make her sick. She tends to fall asleep for a few minutes every time they do so, each time lasting longer, and being harder to wake up.

She can almost hear footsteps in the distance, and her fears make her assume its the scientist coming back for more blood. She doesn't even know why they keep taking so much, or why it's so important to do so. Of course, she soon remembers that she's on Earth, and Earth has a yellow sun. They want her powers. How they know what she can do is beyond her, but the realization fills the scared young woman with more dread.

The footsteps however stop outside the lab, and nowhere near the door. She also notices they were a lot faster. Then, a surprising development: A large thud against the glass surrounding the lab. The room shakes, but returns to normal in time for another thud. And then, another, cracking the glass, before a final thud makes it shatter, and an unfamiliar figure stands in the blast zone.

"Hey." Wally waves to the girl, making her agitation transform into mere confusion. "Sup, this is a rescue."

"A what?"

"Rescue, bust out, great escape, caper, whatever you want to name it." Wally shrugs, approaching her slowly. "I'm here, to set you free, because bad people want to hurt you."

"There's no need to be patronizing." Kara glares a bit at him as she gets up, clutching her left arm, the sting of the needles still fresh.

"Look, uh, do you have a name?" Wally asks as he kneels forward to look at her on her own level.

"Kara." She answers, barely whispering. "Kara Zor-El."

"El? As in, Kal-El?" Wally raises his eyebrow as she nods.

"My cousin." She whispers, clenching her arm as the stinging becomes worse.

"This is great, I know your cousin!"

"No you don't!" Kara pulls away from him, clenching her fists in anger. "My cousin is but a child, a child who was murdered!"

"Murdered? Uh, no, Kara, Kal-El is safe." Wally tells her, trying to keep her calm. She tries to stay mad, but his tone is so honest, he's not lying. "And, I'm sorry to tell you this, but you must've been frozen for some time or something, Kal-El's not a child anymore."

"He's not?" Kara looks puzzled, trying to understand. She was told that the cryogenic stasis would keep her aging slow. Has Kal-El really matured in the time she was stuck in the ice?

"No, he's a man now, a really, really good man. Your family would be proud of him."

"You're not deceiving me?"

"I wouldn't dream of it. I can bring you to him, if you'll trust me." Wally smiles, taking off his mask to make things less impersonal, holding out a hand. She hesitates, but eventually she takes it. "OK, I'm not sure how you'll react to this, but if we're going to making it out of here, I'm going to have to carry you."

"Carry me?" Kara looks puzzled once more, just as the wall shatters.

"Round two, you slippery little..." Henshaw declares, looking at Wally and Kara as his eyes begin to light up.

"Yeah, carry you." Wally pulls her over his shoulder, dashing off to find an exit. Henshaw chases after, though Wally keeps running, much to the annoyance of the girl on his shoulder.

"Do you have to carry me like this?" She questions angrily, crossing her arms. "This is NOT what I had in mind when you said you'd take me to Kal-El!"

"Yeah well, see the robot chasing us? Yeah, he's an evil robot copy of Kal-El; got all his powers, and doesn't have his weaknesses." Wally explains, ducking down a corner, then continuing forward as Henshaw follows.

"Get back here! I haven't torn off your face yet!" The Cyborg Superman declares, chasing after him quickly, nearly catching up, until he notices Wally is heading straight for a wall.

"You're about to feel really weird, sorry about that!" Wally tells her as he charges through the wall, passing through in the same way as before. Behind the wall is an elevator shaft, to which Wally stops inside. He presses against the wall opposite the one he came from. Barely a second goes by before he pushes himself back through, passing the wall once more and running straight through the confused Henshaw. His circuits disrupt and his molecular structure shatters, as the robot falls to the floor, clutching his metal fists in anger at being so casually ignored.

"You red skinned bastard!" Henshaw roars, rebooting and chasing after the speedster, as he ducks down as many hallways as he can, only for Henshaw to catch up slowly.

"He's gaining on us!" he powerless Kryptonian tells him, wishing she had some kind of power right now to help as Henshaw gets close enough to grab her.

Before he can do so, however, Wally kicks forward, turning in the air. In another moment of slow serenity for the scarlet-wearing hero, he turns to face Henshaw, a cocky grin on his face as he flips a taunting hand gesture to the robot, landing back on his feet and speeding of, much faster than Henshaw believed he could.

"Sorry!" Wally yells to the girl on his shoulder, as she cringes from the speed. "This speed is usually uncomfortable for passengers, but if I didn't speed up, we'd kinda be really dead right now!"

"Was taunting him necessary!?"

"No, but neither is the shouting." Wally retorts, spotting an exit. As Henshaw speeds up and starts to gain on them, Wally runs through the doors, escaping the LexCorp building and into the comfort of sunlight.

Slowly, as they run, Wally starts to notice that she's getting lighter and easier to move. He also notices the needle marks on her arm slowly disappear, replaced by a temporary glow.

Yellow Sunlight. Her powers are kicking in.

"Kara? Do me a favour, keep your eyes closed." Wally tells her, knowing what's likely to come next.

"What?" Kara asks, before a pained stinging hits her face, specifically her eyes, before a burning sensation irradiates from inside. Her blood boils as the insides of her eyeball become molten, before the burning energy escapes her pupils, shooting in an unstoppable, uncontrollable beam of energy, slashing the nearby buildings.

The people inside are fortunate enough to duck before any of them are hit, but the damage done is great, causing one building to slowly start to slide apart and fall.

As the buildings collapse, Henshaw starts to catch up, dodging the beam effortlessly as he comes closer to catching them. The rubble from the building falls around them, while a blast from Henshaw collides with the two, tripping Wally up and making the pair crash to the floor, leaving them open to Henshaw's sadistic glee.

"I've been waiting for the chance to get this over with." Henshaw informs him, cracking his fingers before firing his own eye beams at Wally's left leg, crippling him for now and making the Speedster yell out in pain.

"Get away from them!" A voice worthy of worship thunders from the sky, before a fist, moving faster than a bullet, hits Henshaw straight in his metal jaw, knocking him back and away from the pair.

The building's collapse is caught by the lucky interval of a glowing green box, encasing the building and placing it in the right place, as Karen flies closer, welding it back into place, then freezing it to give a case of ice to hold it steady for now.

Luthor's private security start to leave the building, attempting to take back their prisoners while the heroes are distracted, but are stopped by three arrows blocking their path, as three archers stand in the way.

"Not a good plan, guys." Oliver informs them, as he and his Speedy's point their weapons at the group, while Batman and Nightwing stand at either side, cracking their fingers.

Superman punches Henshaw repeatedly. This metal being has all his powers, and so for the sake of Wally and the cousin he is yet to meet, Clark doesn't give him a chance to fight back, punching constantly to keep him down.

Henshaw tries to fire him off, burning him across his face, but Clark merely cringes, he doesn't let the metal monster escape.

But, as the Cyborg Superman slowly starts to overpower the organic Superman, a metal sword pierces his shoulder, as Wonder Woman lands next to him, impaling the robot in place. As he tries to fire again, she stabs his metal eyes with her fingers, tearing them out quickly; a move she wouldn't dare use in stakes lower than this.

"Go, see to Wally and your Cousin." Diana instructs him, twisting her sword in place, removing Henshaw's arm. "He will not go anywhere."

"Thank you." Clark nods, before moving to Wally and Kara's side.

Wally lays on his side, clutching a twisted and partially burnt leg, cringing as he tries to place the bone back into place. Next to him, Kara sits by a lamppost, her eyes shut as she tries to hold in the fire she can't control.

"Wally." Clark lands next to him, scanning his leg to assess the injury.

"Not me!" Wally barks. "Her! Check on her!"

Clark turns to Kara, dropping to her side.

"Kara? Are you Kara Zor-El?" Clark asks slowly, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Stay back! I, I don't want to hurt you!" She declares, floating up a bit, much to her own terror and confusion, desperate to hold in the unending optical inferno.

"Listen to my voice, Kara." Clark tells her, holding her as he slowly floats up to join her. "You feel scared, angry, tormented, and it feels like your anger has took over. You can't stop it lashing out, and that just makes you more angry. Don't focus on that. Pretend it's not there. Focus on your greatest memory. Think back, to Krypton, to your family, your life there."

"Its hard." She cries, feeling like she's about to burst and harm this all-knowing and kind hearted stranger.

"Tell me, your happiest day, what day made you smile the most."

"The day...The day Aunt Lara, and Uncle Jor, the day Kal-El was born. The first time I held him in my arms, the first time I saw his eyes open and see the world."

"Remember that day, remember how you felt. Tell yourself about this day." Clark instructs her, placing a hand on her wrist, slowly peeling her hands away as the fiery glow depletes.

"I remember." She whispers, slowly opening her eyes once the burning has stopped. It takes a second for her to recover, but once she does, she doesn't see a burning fire that she saw last time her eyes were open, she sees a man. A man with the strongest arms, with a face that is just the spitting image of Jor-El in his prime. His figure is strong, but his manner is kind and gentle, and his wear, while damaged by Henshaw, the primary colours of his skin-tight outfit still display the unmistakable image of her family's crest.

"Kara?"

"...Kal-El?" She asks the stranger, the one who somehow feels so familiar.

"Welcome home, Kara." Clark smiles, as a single tear is shed from each of their eyes. "You're safe now."

Without another whisper, she pulls the Man of Steel into a hug, clutching him as tightly as she can.

"I thought you were dead." She cries, as Diana moves to check on them, placing a hand on Clark's shoulder, while Wally, pain-strikingly, pulls himself up to join them.

"Don't worry, I'm here now, Kara. We're here. You're with family."

...

Next Time-

As Kara is introduced to the Kent Family and becomes familiar with her new world, Luthor gets ready to take vengeance against Wally. Putting a price on his head, Luthor sacrifices all his life's work in a desperate bid for revenge against him, Superman, and the rest of their kin. Joined by the collective group of heroes, they strike back, ready to bring Luthor to Justice once and for all.

Notes:

-Tried to include as many characters as I can for this, and this STILL isn't the full intended League. I also imagine the classic Teen Titans as being members, and a good portion of the core JSA will also appear as important, if retired, characters, serving as trainers. Of course, not everyone will get to be important straight away, but I do want to include as many DC characters, even if its just a minor role. This is like how Justice League Unlimited had a ton of background heroes, and basically every superhero in the DCU is now at least an honorary member.

-Admittedly, the bit of exposition introducing Black Canary may've gone a bit overboard in stating how badass she is, but, come on, its Black-f'ning-Canary. I openly admit she's one of my favourite League members. Sure, Batman's great and all, but Dinah could kick his ass easily. As for Wally in that scene, I tried to keep an even mix of nice guy and shameless flirt in his dialogue. Wally, to me, is the kind of guy who does hit on every woman he sees, but he's not a scumbag who objectifies them or sees them as nothing more than sex tools. I see him as the kind of guy who will always call, and at least try to keep them happy; he may not do long term commitment, but he doesn't just toss people out the door after getting what he wants. So, he's a bit of a perv, but the kind who treats the women he's dating as if they're the most important people in the world, and always tries to keep good relations when they're no longer dating.

-The scene with Dr Donovan explaining how Kryptonians work was, admittedly, mostly an info dump. I read semi-recently about a proposed idea for how their powers work, that involves having crystals in their blood that they control and manipulate, after I while I came around to the idea, and decided to work it in.

-The scene with Wally and Lex, that scene was planned for ages in advance. Ever since I got the idea to have Lex Luthor as the opening villain and have Wally as the main figure, I decided to have a confrontation with the two like this. I decided to make Luthor the one responsible for Barry's death in order to add some fuel to the confrontation, and because it gave room for that awesome speech.

-Speaking of that scene, that was originally going to be the opening scene of the next chapter, but I decided that reuniting Kara and Clark was a much more befitting way to end this instalment than a crummy cliff-hanger like I intended.

-And speaking of THAT scene, I hope that moment was as touching as I though it was. That is probably the closest I've ever came to crying at something I've written. Hope it was the same for you reading!


	3. Welcome to the City of Tomorrow, Part 3

Part three of the three part opening arc. Sorry for this being a bit too long, this could've easily been a two-parter, but decided to squeeze it into one.

...

Smallville, Kansas, just outside the Kent Family Farm.

After the incident at LexCorp, Clark and the League took young Kara to STAR labs to check on her vitals. Thankfully, she's seemingly a healthy, young Kryptonian with no real issues that they can see. Of course, they don't really have a perfect idea of what a 'healthy' Kryptonian teenage girl would be, but Hamilton believes she's healthy, so its good enough.

So, why the farm?

Given that her powers are still unstable and she's been through so much in so little time, its best to keep her out of the city in a friendly place like Smallville for now. And so now, they drive down to the Smallville farm, stopping outside and getting out, allowing the young woman to look at her new home. She's never seen anything like this on Krypton, they'd long since abandoned farms in favour of genetically engineering and artificially growing food. And the sun, its so young compared to Rao, so full of clean, fresh energy, providing the young Kryptonian all the energy for her growing powers.

"We can go inside now." Clark tells her as he puts a hand on her shoulder, escorting her inside the small home.

**Welcome to the City of Tomorrow, Part 3**

Kara looks around as they walk through the doors to the farmhouse, taking in the oddly warm-looking home. Its not as high tech as Krypton standards, in fact its almost prehistoric by their standards, but there's just something nice about it.

"Clark, and you must be Kara." Jonathan Kent, stepping in through the opposite side door, welcomed his son and, evidently, new niece.

"Kara, this is my dad." Clark introduces her, though she looks puzzled for a second, before remembering that he probably didn't remember Krypton when he was younger. Still, the confusion is evident as Jonathan, who was holding his hand out to shake, slowly put it away. "So, we spoke to Chloe, Lois, even called Lana, they sent over some clothes that might fit her so she can actually get changed."

"Where can I rest?" Kara asks the two, looking back and forth between them as two other figures descend the stairs, Martha and Conner, holding Conner's things.

"Why do I have to give up my room? She's not my cousin." He mutters in annoyance, not noticing Kara there. "I mean, this is so unfair, I liked my room."

"Conner, its called being a gentleman." Martha replies, motioning him to the short and skinny blond girl in front of him.

"Screw that, I want my Xbox!" Conner crossed his arms, ignoring her, and making her look not-too-kindly at him.

"Conner, this is Kara." Clark interrupts him, drawing his attention to her. "And, for the time being, I expect you to help Kara adjust to Smallville."

"Uhg, fine. Don't know why she couldn't take the basement." Conner mutters in annoyance, ignoring his new cousin/sibling/aunt maybe?/whatever they decide on.

"He's got a serious attitude problem." Kara crosses her arms, glaring at the basement door he just entered, before the door sets on fire.

"Kara!"

"Sorry!"

Jonathan scrambles to put the fire out while she ducks to her knees, covering her eyes, while Clark kneels down to comfort her again.

"Its OK, you'll learn." Clark assures her as she looks up slowly, while Conner looks back up.

"Awe, no fair! She gets heat vision AND my room!" Conner complains, bemoaning his lack of all the powers he should have.

"Here, Kara, why don't you and Ma go upstairs and pick out some clothes, Conner, I'll help you unpack your things." Clark tells him, as Martha helps Kara back to her feet.

"Fine." Conner sighs, heading back down to the basement. "Can I at least have my TV and Xbox down here-" He's interrupted by the sound of a fast moving object darting up to his bedroom and heading back to the basement. "-Thank you!"

Kara looks at the still-to-be-redecorated room, cringing at the 'boy smell', but otherwise its generally homely. Martha does, at least, spray some air freshener, before leading her to the piles of donated clothes.

"I don't know how he does it, he doesn't even sweat and somehow he can make this room smell like a gym sock." Martha tries to lighten the mood, laying out the outfits. "Now, Lois' clothes might be a bit big for you, but Chloe was about your size when she was younger, as was Lana, so there clothes will be ready now. Anything else you need, just let us know."

"This, this is really kind of you to do. You don't have to do all this for me." Kara smiles a little, looking at her feet while brushing her messy blond hair behind her ear. "I would've been OK with the basement."

"Kara, you're family, and this is what we do for family. Conner may be making a fuss about it but trust me, he's happy to have a little sister around." Martha assures her. "Now, pick something to wear for now, we'll sort out the rest later."

"OK." Kara's smile grows a bit bigger, looking up at Martha before glancing at the clothes. None of the outfits in Chloe's pile are particularly fashionable or anything, but Lana's pile seem to be a bit closer to what she'd want. She looks through them to find something that stands out, when she spots a blue outfit, a long sleeved top half and a short skirt of the same colour, with a gold trim.

"That's Lana's old cheerleading uniform, if you like it feel free to try it on. They've changed the style since I think." Martha explains, while Kara looks over the outfit more, before smiling and deciding on it.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Clark talks with his clone/brother/son/something, having unpacked his stuff and set up the TV and game system.

"You could try being a bit more supportive and welcoming." Clark tells him, taking the second controller and joining his game.

"I am, I didn't just say no. This is me being welcoming." Conner retorts, focusing on the game, while killing Clark's character, repeatedly.

"No spawn camping." Clark mutters with a smile. "Seriously though, she's been through a lot, she needs a family. And for starters, she could use a big brother."

"And you can't do it because...?"

"I'll be here Conner, as much as I can, as much as I've been with you. But I can't be here all the time."

"Right, saving the world and all that. So, how come she has heat vision and I don't?"

"From what I can gather, you should be able to do it, you just don't know how yet. The same likely goes for her too. She hasn't displayed the same level of strength as you and me, or extra senses, and when she was flying before she clearly had no control of it."

"Wait, she can fly too? So unfair!" Conner complains, killing Clark's character again. "It took me ages to fly!"

"Don't worry, she still needs to learn how to control it." Clark puts a hand on his shoulder. "Besides, you both got it before I did, I couldn't fly properly until I was in my twenties."

"Yeah, but you didn't have anyone like you to help." Canner mutters, returning focus to his game. "I've got a guy like you to help and I'm still a couple powers short. Of course, with little miss room-stealer upstairs, I'm sure you'll be really busy teaching her all the tricks that I'm too human to get-"

"Conner, look at me." Clark takes his attention away. "You are my son, that is something I care about. Kara, she'll need both our help to adjust to her new life, but you are still my son, nothing will change that."

"Hm, getting a little deep now." Conner laughs a bit, trying to lighten the mood. "Clark, sorry if I'm being a bit of brat, but its hard to really process. Yesterday I was Superboy, Superman's clone and the only thing to carry on Krypton's legacy. Now, well, that's what she's for, and frankly, since I'm only part Kryptonian, she's probably a better candidate."

"Don't think like that Conner. It's still your legacy, its just now you have someone to share it with. Think of it as you just got a new sister. Someone who might actually be able to play video games with you."

Conner just snickers at this.

"Please, Clark, girls can't play video games."

"You remember this was Lois' game, right?" Clark smirks back as he pauses the screen. "And, I do believe that's her name that's nearly gotten twice as much 'game score' as you do."

"...Shut up." Conner crosses his arms, before laughing a bit.

"Well, I'll check on Kara then head off to Metropolis. Promise me you'll at least try to be nice to her?"

"I'll try to try." Conner shrugs, returning to his game as Clark heads back upstairs.

"Kara?" He asks, knocking on the door.

"Come in." Kara calls through the door, letting him in as she sits in the chosen outfit.

"See you picked something to wear." Clark smiles awkwardly as he steps in. "Not really casual clothing."

"It reminded me of what I used to wear back on Krypton." Kara explains, hugging her knees as she budges up to give him room to sit down. "Is Conner mad that he's had to give up his room for me?"

"Yes...but he gets mad when there isn't enough ice-cream for him to fill his bowl with, so I wouldn't take anything from that." Clark shrugs awkwardly.

"Ice-cream?" Kara looks puzzled, when Clark realizes he hasn't actually gotten her anything to eat yet.

"Gimme a second." Clark gets up, dashing down stairs and returning with a plastic tub and two spoons. "This, is ice-cream."

He sits down for a second, holding the tub out in his hand. He glares at it, lowering his glasses and letting his heat vision carefully defrost it, making sure not to melt the plastic, before holding it out, opening the lid and handing her a spoon.

"Dig in." He tells her with a smile, digging his own spoon in and taking a spoonful, eating it to show her its edible.

Carefully, she inspects the spoon and the frozen food in front of her. It seems to be a creamy frozen paste, and it smells far too sweet to really be edible, so she takes her time to sample it. She gets barely a third of the spoon, slowly putting it in her mouth and carefully tasting it as it melts on her tongue. It takes her a second before she's immediately shovelling as much as she can in, pausing after a few seconds and clutching temple.

"My skull feels like ice." She groans, while Clark smiles a little.

"Yeah, you need to eat it slowly. It's called getting brain freeze." He laughs a bit, patting her back. "We might be able to bend steel and punch rocks into space, but we're still brought down easily when we eat too much ice cream."

"The taste is addictive, but the after effect is off-putting." Kara notes to herself, sighing a bit, causing the spoon in front of her to freeze and cover with ice, making both of them raise an eyebrow.

"Yeah, maybe we shouldn't tell Conner about this, he's already jealous about you having heat vision." Clark tells her with his ever present smile with a mix of awkwardness and general friendliness. "You OK?"

"This is going too fast." Kara sighs, hugging her knees once more. "This new world, new foods, powers, I'm not sure I can really handle it."

"Don't worry, it gets easier." Clark assures her. "When my powers started kicking in, it felt like too much. Its hard to handle at first, but fortunately, you've got the ones that are the easiest to manage, if the most destructive. It doesn't take long to learn how to use them, and how to control them; in fact, I could teach you right now how control your heat vision, so you can at least get annoyed at Conner without burning his face off."

"Really?" Kara looks up, beaming like a child on christmas. "And, how to fly?"

"Absolutely. I could-"

"...Superman..." Clark hears, a faint whisper in the distance, mixed with the other sounds buzzing around the world. "...I know you can hear me, Clark..."

Luthor.

"Uh, Kal-El?" Kara looks at him in confusion.

"...Don't do anything to draw attention to yourself, don't let anyone know anything's the matter..." The voice continues. "...You took away my latest project, and you and your friends took down one of my best guards...time to pay..."

Then, he hears a gunshot coming from the same place, followed by the sound of the bullet hitting flesh and bone, then colliding with brain matter. Its then he notices the sounds of five people whimpering, sounding like they're tied up. It may be far away but it sounds like its right next to him.

"...Come and find me, or I'll keep shooting them..."

"Sorry, Kara, just remembered something I need to take care of." Clark tells her, getting up suddenly.

"But, what about showing me to manage my powers?" Kara asks, frowning at his sudden decision to leave.

"I'm sorry, I'll help you later." Clark apologizes, stepping out the door.

"But...?" Kara tries to stop him as another gunshot goes off, making Clark dash out of the small house, out of the city limits, and to the very edge of the state line, heading for Metropolis.

In Luthor's office, Clark shatters the widow, decked in his Superman suit, and diving at the still firing bullet, catching it in his hand. However, the second he does so, he starts to slow down, feeling the fatigue of what he's just done kick in. Kryptonite bullet.

"I'm a little surprised that worked, honestly." Lex admits, shooting him in the back to take him down, leaving the Kryptonite slug in his back. "The Man of Steel, brought down like anyone else."

Lex opens the pistol, taking out one of the bullets and holding it out to him.

"You know, I used to have a hitman on payrol before, by the name of Floyd Lawton. I think your friends in Gotham have dealt with him. After every successful hit, he'd never celebrate, he'd just say to himself 'we've all got a bullet with our name on it'. He was always the fatalist like that. But, now, I think he had a point."

Kicking him over, he puts the bullet back in the gun, clocking it and aiming at him.

"And guess what? This one has your name on it, right here."

...

STAR Labs, roughly the same time of the day.

Wally slowly awoke, sitting inside a small medical room as Emil Hamilton looked him over, making sure he was fine.

"Interesting, when you woke up, your body's natural healing factor increased significantly." Emil notes to himself, monitoring his vitals. "And it spikes up every time you move; apparently you're drawing unknown energies from somewhere every time you move."

"Yeah, already know how my powers work Doc." Wally shrugs off this evaluation, pulling himself from the bed.

"You should rest, you're still recovering from a run in with a robot duplicate of Superman. You're lucky to be alive."

"Yeah, get told that a lot." Wally sighs, waiting a few seconds. "Healed yet?"

"No, you're still seriously injured." Emil tells him, checking his readings.

"How about now?"

"Its been five seconds."

"And? Am I healed yet or not?"

"...actually yes, amazingly. And you got all this from being struck by lightning? Where do you get the extra mass and energy from?"

"I've got a big appetite. And you know, speaking of which." Wally shrugs, before dashing away for a second, returning with a large portion of fast foods. "I'm in serious need of food, and no offense, but hospital food has never agreed with me."

"I see you're up." A friendly voice calls, as Diana steps into the room. "Nice to see you awake."

"Nice to see you, period, and I'm always up, especially for a princess." Wally smiles at her. "Glad to see you were worried about me. What I miss? How long was I out?"

"Quite a bit. Clark took Kara home to get her settled down, we've been discussing what to do about Luthor, and-"

"We?"

"The League." Diana explains, sitting against the corner of the medical bed. "We're bringing it back."

"Huh, copycats." Wally snickers, sitting up properly and sitting next to her. "Probably for the best, I doubt my little leadership skills would suffice. What made Undies-on-the-outside change his mind?"

"When you were off trying to take on Luthor by yourself, which was really stupid, by the way," she interrupts herself by hitting him over the back of the head, though not hard enough to really hurt. "Clark found a time traveller, his cousin's future self, who warned of what would happen if we didn't stop Luthor now."

"So, I was right?"

"You were right. Now, please stop smirking or I'll have to hit you, hard." Diana tells him with her own smirk, getting up from her seat.

"Got it, Star-pants." Wally salutes her, getting up once his leg has healed enough to walk on. "So, speaking of which, where is Ol' Spit-curl anyway?"

"He's in Smallville, helping Kara adapt. When he's done, we'll meet at Watchtower and we'll see what we can do about Luthor. It'll be hard considering how hard Luthor tries to keep his darker side hidden..."

"Not anymore." Emil interrupts, having been checking on a small tablet computer when the feed was hacked and the image replaced by a transmission, one he shows the two.

Across the US, TVs, computers, and smart phones cut off their transmission, instead playing the image of Lex Luthor, sitting in his officer.

"_Good evening, people of the US. I'm sure you know who I am, but for those who don't, my name is Lex Luthor, and I am your only real hero_." He starts, leaning forward a bit. "_False idols like Superman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, they deceive and lie, and have you all brainwashed into believing they're noble heroes. And unfortunately, trying to combat them in the open would make people view me as an extremist, a villain. But today, no more hiding_."

"What is he up to?" Wally mutters, before his eyes widen a bit upon seeing his own face appear at the side of the screen.

"_This man here, he is a superhuman currently posing as the Flash. He broke into my lab and stole something from me, something expensive. I don't know where he's hiding them, but I want his head on a platter if he doesn't return what my scientists were calling specimen 3. And so I'm making a reward: seventeen million dollars to whoever surrenders him over to me, dead or alive. Starting now._"

"Well, that's not going to be good for us." Emil gulps a bit, pressing a button to beef up security in the lab.

"_Now, by now most of you should have left to go find this person, so I know now, the only people still watching are the so-called Justice League, and you, 'Flash'._" Luthor adds, addressing Wally directly. "_Your allies will not surrender you, and you're not going to just hand yourself over, so I need some more incentive. So, I have this._"

To their shock and horror, he holds up a tattered blue piece of spandex, with the symbol of El printed on it. Its then that the image of Wally changes, to the image of Superman, chained by Kryptonite binds, holding him in place.

"_I've captured the Man of Steel like the rat he is, and in five hours, I will start looking for ways to kill him, unless you surrender yourself, and tell me where you took 'Kara'. Do not try my patience._"

With that, the image cuts to a still of Clark, in the cell, trapped and unable to escape.

Wally drops his charm and spirit, just staring at the image, though he's pulled out of this concentration by Diana gripping his shoulder, as tightly as she can.

"Don't even think about it." She tells him quietly, staring him in the eye.

"Diana, he's got Clark pinned down with Kryptonite, I can't just-"

"You're not going to hand yourself over. You and I both know he'd never let Clark go if he caught him." Diana reminds him, sitting him back down. "Now we're going back to Watchtower, meeting with everyone else, and we're going to save him. Got it?"

"...I got it." Wally mutters, bowing his head.

"Now, can I trust you to go to Watchtower?" She asks, letting go of him.

"With an outfit like yours I'd run to a volcano if you wanted." Wally smirks a bit, lightening the mood.

"Emil, what about you?"

"I can stay, my security drones will deal with anyone looking for Wally and, the research in these labs is too valuable to leave alone."

"OK, stay safe. Wally, follow me." Diana nods, before flying out of the lab, followed by Wally on the street, running over rooftops.

...

Meanwhile, back at the Kent farm, a short while before Luthor's message came up.

As Lois and Martha talk in the kitchen, and Jonathan watches the news, Conner plays outside, having grown bored of killing zombie SS soldiers. Holding a football, he tosses it down across the cornfields, then chases after it as fast as he can, catching the ball before it gets too far, then tossing it back, again and again. He occasionally mutters sporting terms that this humble fanfic writer does not know or understand, pretending to be playing a large field of similarly powered individuals.

That is, until he stops upon seeing Kara outside too, having came to investigate what he was doing, resulting in Conner missing the ball. The ball which, having been hurled by a Kryptonian teenager at bullet speeds, collides with Kara before she can react, tossing her into the wooden barn.

"Oh for the love of; somehow that's going to be my fault." Conner mutters while scrambling to the barn to assess the damage. The three authority figures exit the back door to investigate, though he signals them to go back inside. "Hey, just a little accident. I swear I'll fix this by the end of the week."

As the three of them return inside, he pushes the wooden planks aside, finding the dazed Super girl pressed against a, now dinted, tractor that had been shoved back by her collision.

"Uh, you're not dead, are you?" Conner asks her, with an awkward smile in an attempt to keep her calm.

"You just tossed me through a wall." Kara mutters, getting up and holding the ball, which she, possibly accidentally, crushes in her hand.

"Hey, that was my ball!"

"Had it not been for the yellow sun in the sky, I would have been killed." She retorts, keeping her temper in control as much as she can.

"That ball was signed by the Metropolis Knights!"

"There are splinters of wood in my hair and the...machine of some kind behind me is damaged."

"I've had that thing for two years!"

"AND, I swallowed a bug while flying back, and that is indescribably disgusting and unpleasant."

"Well, guess we're even then." Conner shrugs, glancing at her. "You know, you're floating right now."

Kara glances at the floor, noticing that she's floating two feet of the ground, and has no idea how to get back down.

"Here, why don't we just keep your feet on the ground." Conner places a hand on her head, pushing her back down to the floor.

"...thank you. But don't do that again." She mumbles, pushing his hand away. "You are very annoying, you know that?"

"In your opinion, room-stealer." Conner retorts, shrugging it off. "I prefer to think of myself as a lovable scamp, you know?"

"There's nothing lovable about your demeanour."

"Nothing lovable about your face." Conner replies, tapping her nose in a further attempt to annoy her. Which, naturally, resulting in his face setting on fire. "OWE! For the love of, what the hell!?"

"Sorry!" Kara apologizes, patting out the flames she accidentally caused.

"Owe, careful, that's enough, he fire's out." He tells her once his face is no longer burning, while she continues trying to bat out the now non-existent flames, forcing him to have to stop her. Of course, its then he realizes why she didn't notice the flames were out when he notices that her eyes are shut, while the area around glows red. She can't stop it.

"Listen, do whatever Clark told you, that should stop the beams." Conner tries as she sits down, covering her eyes for a second before the redness stops and she can open them again. "You OK?"

"I hate this." Kara admits, staring at her feet. "I can't get mad without nearly killing everyone, I can't keep my feet to the floor, and I broke the monitor in the room when I tried to turn it on."

"You broke my TV? I mean, uh, cheer up, its not so bad. Clark will teach you."

"He was about to, then he left without any explanation."

"He did? Huh, weird." Conner raises an eyebrow, sitting next to her. "Look, it can't be that hard. I mean, it took me a while to get what I've got, but when I got them, it wasn't too hard to control them after a bit of practice. According to Ma and Pa, we Kent's are fast learners. Of course, since Clark's adopted, I'm not sure how that works exactly, but, never mind that. What I'm saying is, you just need to practice."

"Easy for you to say, you're not shooting death out of your eyes."

"Pfft, so what? It can't be that hard to aim and all. You just need to know what the triggers are, then get used to firing it."

"Its not that-"

"Come on, try it, I'll prove to you that its not that hard, and you're just being a baby about it." Conner interrupts, getting up and pulling her to her feet with him. He runs to the opposite side of the barn, putting some empty paint cans on the side. "Wait, actually, barn's made of wood, do this outside so you don't burn us all."

With that, he races outside, placing the cans on a wooden fence in a row as she follows slowly. "OK, come on, want you to try and hit them."

"I'm not sure if this is-"

"Relax, its going to work out great, just try and hit them." Conner repeats, returning to her side and pointing at the cans. With a sigh, she tries to shoot them with her eyes, but nothing happens.

"I don't know how to use it-"

"Here, let me help." Conner stepped back, picking up a small stone and tossing it at her head.

"Hey!"

"See!? Now, let the hate flow through you, use it, and kill those cans!"

Rolling her eyes, she returns to glancing at the cans as he starts tossing more and more, getting on her nerves quickly, slowly making her eyes heat up until she's able to blast a beam of heat out, melting a hole straight through the can.

"I did it!" Kara cheers happily, clapping her hands as she stops firing for a second.

"See? Told you. Now, try to hit the others without my help." He repeats, making her nod and concentrates. Soon, she starts firing at each can, trying different ways of using her heat vision.

"I think I've got the basics covered." She decides after a moment. "Thank you, I think I can control it."

"No problem. Now, next, we try out other abilities."

"Other abilities?" She looks puzzled, before he grabs her arm again and running, quickly across the field, dragging her with him. It takes her a second to get her own footing and running separately from him, racing him across the field and towards the woods.

He leaps over a wooden fence, making her attempt the same; she crashes into the fence instead but regains her footing and continues not long after, following him into the forest. He leaps again, flying over the trees and landing on the other side, to which she tries to copy. The first few jumps end up being relatively small, though soon she starts jumping as high as he can, while he continues to run and jump across fields around the farmlands.

They approach the main town of Smallville, and the pair race around the streets before returning to the farmlands, leaping once more into the air. As Conner continues, Kara finds herself slowing down as she leaps up, until she stops completely in the air, flying. At first, she looks puzzled, but after focusing on moving, she starts to float forward, before, with a playful smirk, she turns this into a full flight, flying right at Conner and knocking him to the ground.

As the pair roll about on the grass, recovering almost instantly, Kara gets back to her feet with a laugh, amused and enjoying her newfound powers for the first time since she got them.

With his own smirk, Conner knelt down, watching as the wind circled him for a second, before he rockets into the air, knocking her back as he does so.

"Beat this, blondie!" He calls back, flying in circles. She looks up in awe, before turning her expression to a confident grin once more and repeating his previous gesture. She stumbles and falls the first three attempts, but after that she manages to fire herself into the sky, chasing after him. For a short while, they play tag in the sky, though that devolves quickly until they're outright tackling each other, nearly hitting a flying plane before flying lower. As Conner tries to land, she tackles him down, both landing in a small jog, while he pulls her into a headlock, laughing while messing up her hair.

"See, room stealing aside, you're not so bad." Conner decides, while she tries to pull herself free. "Of course, I bet you still suck at Xbox."

"I'm not sure what that earthly box is or why its given such a title, but I am _totally_ going to beat you on it!" She declares with a cat-like grin, attempting to pry her head free.

"Awe, Kara stuck?" Conner teases, giving her a noogie before she can get free, resulting in her giving him a light punch on the arm. "Owe!"

"You ruined my hair." She glares lightly, trying to set it back into place, though the wind makes that difficult.

"Whatever, you're still a dorky room stealer."

"I'll melt your face again."

"Kara! Conner!"

The two's trading insults are cut off, however, as Jonathan calls from the back door, motioning for them to return in. With a confused glance, the two race inside, nearly knocking the door off as they enter the living room, watching the TV.

_"...and you, 'Flash'. Your allies will not surrender you, and you're not going to just hand yourself over, so I need some more incentive. So, I have this._" The Kent/El family watch, as like before, he holds up a tattered blue piece of spandex, with the symbol of El printed on it, before followed by the image of Clark, chained by Kryptonite binds, holding him in place.

"Oh god no." Martha mutters, covering her mouth.

"_I've captured the Man of Steel like the rat he is, and in five hours, I will start looking for ways to kill him, unless you surrender yourself, and tell me where you took 'Kara'. Do not try my patience._"

"Kal-El." Kara mumbles to herself, before heading out the door.

"Kara!" Jonathan tries to stop her, but he's too late.

"I'll get her." Conner tells the group before racing after her, not taking too long to catch up. Soon, he's flying right next to her, trying to get her attention. "Kara! Stop already, you can't go racing in there."

"He needs help!" She shouts back, continuing on her attempt to save him.

"Listen to me!" Conner repeats, flying in front of her and looking back. "Did you see what he was bound in? That's Kryptonite, it hurts people like us, it kills Kryptonians."

"I'll manage-"

"You'll be handing yourself over like a platter." Conner repeats, slowing down and forcing her to do so as well. "I'm all for helping, but we can't do it alone."

"Well, what do you suggest?" Kara responds, stopping slowly.

"Well, do you remember that Clark has friends?" Conner asks, raising an eyebrow.

...

Watchtower, moments later.

The gathered heroes sit around the large room, getting ready. Be it prepping arrows, zipping up spandex, or just stretching and getting their powers pumping, the group prepare to free Superman.

"Here's what I can still get; Luthor's already locked me out of the system." Captain Atom tells the group as he, Oliver, Diana, Bruce, Karan, and Dick stand around a circular table, developing a strategy among themselves. On the table, a hologram of the LexCorp building appears, mapping the location of each room and even the security cameras, with one being coloured red to stand out among the others. "This room here, going from what I could see in the image, this is where Superman will be; its the most secure room in the building, and can be rigged to blow without damaging anything else."

"From the looks of this place, the easiest way to get in undetected is to take this entry point here." Oliver adds, pointing at another room. "Its got the least cameras in the way, so we can follow this hallway to this elevator, and we'll be able to get to the room without as much effort. You could make it in without trouble, but you'd need someone on the outside keeping the bigger guys busy and someone else keeping the rest distracted."

"Lex's security is admittedly impressive, so the best solution would be to get the strongest and have them attack here." Diana suggests, pointing near the front. "Widest room with least registered desks, should have less employees at risk. We want to draw the attention of Lex's personal villains, then get them as far away from the building and the street as possible."

"Can Sullivan divert traffic from the scene, try and get us some breathing room?" Nightwing asks the group.

"She can indeed." Chloe replies from behind them, already hacking the computers to get them space.

"Good, we'll call Oracle, see if she can get the skies clear of air traffic, and Diana's buddy in the air force can get some pilots nearby in case." He adds, turning to the others. "So, anything else?"

"I have something, how many big names does he have on payroll? I want to know what head's I have to crack." Karen asks, tapping her fingers.

"Besides the likely few showing up to claim the hit on Wally, there's about three that I know of in the labs." Captain Atom explains, typing something on the side to change the hologram to changing images of the supervillains. "Henshaw, who's likely been repaired now, John Corben, and Cliff Zmeck. He's got others, don't know all of them though."

"Huh, remember him from my world. Going to look forward to smacking him to space and back." Karen mutters to herself. "When do we move?"

"Now." Diana answers, grabbing her weapons and putting on additional plates of armour. "Lets go get back our Boy scout."

...

LexCorp.

The staff have been sent home, the doors have been locked, security has been tripled, and now, they wait. Having gathered villains he's promised different things to, Lex merely has to wait out until the Justice League come, and face his own league of methuman fighters.

Henshaw, Metallo, Parasite, Livewire, Deathstroke, Cheetah, Solomon Grundy, and Major Force; all perched near the front, waiting for whoever tries to come at them. Police, superheroes, whatever they throw at them.

To Henshaw, there's one thing on the line for him. Twice so far he's been easily bested by superhumans that should be bellow his level, so he's going for blood. Repaired and with additional improvements, he's preparing for them this time.

Metallo, he's not actually all that fussed whichever way this goes. He's hear for one thing: The opportunity to kill Superman. Sure, Lex wants to be the one to do that, but when this is all said and done, nothing's stopping him from just killing Luthor and killing the Man of Steel before any of the others get the chance.

Parasite, there's the power at play. He's not been allowed near Superman, since he'd just get himself killed with all that Kryptonite there and they'd rather keep the boyscout where he is, but from what he's been told, there's more Kryptonians around. Kryptonians asking to give him their power and energy, and he'd be glad to do so.

Livewire, she's just looking for some fun. Luthor offered her a pardon in exchange for working here, and the opportunity to fight some heroes and cause some chaos while getting paid and protected, who wouldn't agree to that?

Major Force, a part of him is just happy to cut loose, but another part is annoyed at the restraints he's under. He's got the power to turn off the sun if he wanted to, and Luthor's got him on a leash he can't get off. So, he'll play his game, kill who he wants him to kill, but the second he's free, Luthor, the military, and all these clowns are going to be just a fine paste at the start of his real rampage.

Cheetah just wants a hunt; with Wonder Woman involved, it was natural she'd sign up for the chance to gut and kill the Amazon.

Grundy was just a matter of a shock collar and directions to kill the League; the zombie giant didn't care about money or anything, he just wants this damn shock collar off.

And Deathstroke? This is just business to him.

Meanwhile, Luthor stands in a lab, preparing for the upcoming attack.

He's currently in the process of powering up and assembling a high powered suit of green and purple robotic armour, designed to take on Superman. Titanium-reinforced, complete with force fields, gravity displacing engines, and high powered pulse lasers; it gives the wearer a taste of Superman's power, and he's going to use that to crush that scarlet-dressed speedster, then the rest of these so-called heroes, before finally crushing Superman's throat and delivering his corpse to the world.

Today, the age of the Superhero _will_ die.

"Luthor, they're here." Major Force alerts him, as they spot an ensemble of heroes on the road before the main entrance, ready to start.

Opposite the villains, the heroes stand, ready to save their friend and take down Luthor once and for all.

Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Power Girl, Green Lantern, and The Flash; Diana, J'onn, Karen, John, and Wally. With the Bats, Birds, and Arrows dealing with freeing Superman or providing cover fire, the remaining heroes are at a disadvantage, but that's just how things go.

"Well, so they are." Luthor states, descending to see them after fully engaging his armour, as his small army of villains stand to face the heroes.

"This doesn't have to be violent, Luthor." Diana informs him, standing before the other heroes, taking command. "Surrender peacefully, free Superman, and end this madness."

"Do you think I'm intimidated? So you have a new Justice League; look at who I have." Luthor retorts, holding his arms out to his villains. "These are Sparta's Walls."

"I've seen the real walls of Sparta with my own eyes." Diana declares, turning her glance into a glare. "And they fell by Amazonian hands, just like you shall if you don't end this now."

"Great bravado, for a foolish woman." Luthor grins. "You would be wise to turn over West, and then the rest of you may go for now; I'll deal with you when I need to."

"You don't get to walk away anymore Luthor." Diana warns him, stepping forward, gripping her lasso. "Your stunt on the TV? That's it for you; you pretty much admitted your guilt to every person in the country. Release Superman and you might stand a chance of not going to jail."

"You want the Man of Steel?" Luthor questions, turning his own expression into a vicious death glare. "Try and take them. Let loose the dogs of war."

With that final word, both Luthor and Diana charge forward at each other, ready to lock into battle. From the side, Cheetah sprints forward, tackling Diana out of the way, trying to cut out her throat while growling like an animal. Wonder Woman struggles, wrestling her off just as Grundy tries to strike them both down. Diana manages to get out of the way, swinging Cheetah at him like a club.

"We're kinda massively at a disadvantage here. Any plans to deal with that?" John questions the others, shielding some attacks as each one takes on someone and starts fighting them.

"You haven't been watching the skies, we've got company." Karen tells him as she motions up above, as two red and blue figures fly down at bullet speeds.

Before Luthor can react while wrestling an attacking Martian Manhunter off of him, Kara hits him like a missile, punching through his force fiends and hitting him again and again.

"Where is Kal-El!?" She demands, hitting him again and again. He releases a red sunlight wave, knocking her off, but she scrambles to get back up and recover, as Superboy tackles the bald headed man responsible for his creation, hitting him himself.

"Poor choice to come here kid." Metallo taunts as he comes in, kicking Kara in the side before she can recover, then holding her down with his foot. "Even the Boyscout could take me without cheating, don't think you're going to do much good either, Barbie."

"My name is Kara. Remember that." She grunts as, before he can even realize its happening, beams of heat fire through his torso, knocking him back as she flies back up, kicking him back. Henshaw darts in, hitting her in the jaw, before another fist strikes him back as Karen hits him back.

"Stay away from little me!" She warns the cyborg, catching his fist and tearing it off when he tries to hit her back. Glaring, he fires his own heat beams at her, to which she counters with her own, until a fleshy mass tackles her to the side, followed by the pain of her life force being sucked out and consumed by Parasite.

" Kryptonian!" The monster declares joyfully, cackling as Kryptonian genetics replace his own and his blood begins to change. Before he can hit the weakened Power Girl, a glowing green arrow hits him in the back, burning his blood as Kryptonite counters the power he just gained, resulting in a pained scream.

Above, Roy Harper and Mia Dearden-Queen look down at the fight, aiming their weapons.

"Keep us covered, I'm going in." Roy tells his adopted sister, grabbing a second quiver and getting ready to jump.

"Oliver told us to stay here." Mia reminds him, taking aim at the battle.

"Oliver also let me run around calling myself Speedy; clearly he's not the best decision maker." Roy retorts, leaping off while she rolls her eyes at him.

Firing a grappling arrow up, he swings down, kicking the twitching Parasite off of her while tossing her something.

"Take this; it'll recharge your body, get you back fighting." He tells her as he holds up a small inhaler, devised by Batman for when Superman's been drained by red sunlight, and given to them prior to the battle. As she shrugs and takes it, he turns to aim at Luthor, who's struggling to keep Superboy off of him, only to find another figure standing in the way, swinging a large sword at him.

"Hey kid, miss me?" Deathstroke questions, swinging at the red head repeatedly with a long sword and a smaller machete as he struggles to dodge, blocking with his bow-thankful that they're reinforced with steel- and ducking back. Above, Mia tries to fire at Deathstroke, but the assassin turns and catches the arrow, then tries to stab Roy with it.

"Mia, do me a favour and don't try to help." Roy mutters as he ducks out of the way, kicking the arrow from his hand and drawing out a small combat knife, using it to block the machete, then kicking Deathstroke in the gut.

Behind him, Wally darts towards them, trying to help, when a blue lightning bolt hits him, tackling him across the floor.

"Not so fast, babe. Gotta deal with me first." The living lightning bolt known as Livewire taunts with a cocky smirk, one he soon copies as he pulls himself up.

"Then lets get moving then, shall we?" Wally retorts, darting to the side as she copies him, racing down the street.

"What's the matter? To scared to fight me?" Livewire cackles, chasing him as he runs. "Don't make this boring, you know you can't outrun lightning."

"Heh, watch me. Lets see how fast lightning really is." Wally grins back, before zooming further ahead, forcing her to increase her own speed to follow him, both accepting the other's challenge.

...

Meanwhile, at the side of LexCorp, Green Arrow takes aim with a zipline-arrow, firing the metal cord across to the LexCorp building. Taking out a metal hook, he jumps down, hooking onto the cord and flying down through a window, smashing through and landing in a roll. Before the closest guard can point his gun, Oliver tackles him, hitting him across the face with the handle of his bow.

Another, spotting him, tries to fire at him, but Green Arrow fires first, taking the man's weapon out of his hand and, while he's distracted by that, taking him out with a quick boot to the face.

"Security is now heading to your direction, just as you guessed." Chloe informs him, watching the security feed.

"Good. I got this area covered, the others good to get the boyscout?" Oliver asks her, taking out one more guard without even glancing at them while walking forward.

"We're on route now." Nightwing answers as he, Batman, and Black Canary enter through the weakest point in the building, now with far less security.

One or two guards unintentionally run into them, though they're quickly taken down by one of the three, and a small scream from Canary takes out any alarms, motion detectors, or cameras in their way, cutting their way down to Clark's location.

"According to Watchtower, he should be behind there." Nightwing informs them, stopping behind a closed door, with a single computer panel linked to an electric lock on the door.

"Could hack the door, would take seventeen minutes to crack the firewall." Batman muses, connecting a small console to the computer panel, while Canary looks the door over.

"Not sure how long Arrow can keep the bad guys at bay, seventeen minutes might be too long." Nightwing adds, looking over his shoulder.

"Fellas, maybe instead of trying to nerd your way through the door, could give me a try?" Dinah suggests, stepping back.

"But I thought you hated computers." Nightwing comments, before noticing Batman covering his ears and scrambles quickly to do the same.

One glass-shattering, ear bursting scream later, the door blasts open, giving light to the Kryptonite-filled room, and the trapped Clark in the centre.

"Clark, can you hear me?" Bruce asks him, kneeling down next to him quickly, lifting up his cowl to look at him properly. He checks Clark's pulse, before pulling the barely conscious Boyscout onto his feet, holding him up and carrying him out of the room. "J'onn, we've secured Clark, but he's drained, badly. We need to get him some yellow sunlight, and a lot of it."

"Understood." The telepathic Martian responds, while duelling Grundy, ducking the brute's attacks and phasing through his fists. "Lantern, you're needed."

Stewart, getting the message, shoves back Major Force and flies down, blocking attacks from Henshaw and Metallo as he gets to the window of the building just as Nightwing, Canary, and Batman carry him there. The Green Lantern takes him off their hands, flying into the sky and towards the sun, just as a grenade is tossed up at the three, who only narrowly dodge it.

Deathstroke looks up from bellow, holding Roy down with his foot, and holding his sword up to challenge the former leader of the Titans.

Accepting the silent challenge, Nightwing leaps down, escrimna sticks drawn as he dives, while Slade waits with his sword ready until he notices Nightwing briefly glance behind him and smile. The assassin turns to spot Flash, heading straight his way. He braces for the speedster, with Livewire following nearby, giving Nightwing the opportunity to kick him in the back as he lands and flip back, landing in a crouch.

Flash leaps over him, while he turns to strike the oncoming Livewire in the gut to stop her suddenly, making her crash at the side, while Wally continues running up the building, flashing a wink at Batman and Canary, and Green Arrow as he joins them following taking out the last guard, before stopping, and racing back down and tackling Deathstroke before he could get back up, and s Livewire begins to get up and fry the two, Nightwing takes her out with a tranquilizer dart.

"Like old times." Wally smirks, stopping for a second as the two high-five one another.

"God I missed those days." Dick grins back. "Now, let's get moving before we're crushed or shot by one of the other guys."

Around them, each of the heroes and villains are locked in battle, with no sign of either side coming out on top.

Martian Manhunter continues to battle Solomon Grundy, using his telepathy to throw him off with several images of himself while he takes on Grundy's own form, punching the giant zombie back.

Power Girl and Parasite fly past one another, trading heat vision blasts as she flies down, having to duck Metallo as he tries to fire Kryptonite radiation at her.

Henshaw meanwhile takes on both Kryptonian teens as Kara and Conner try to overpower and out-manoeuvre him, to which he easily counters and overpowers the children.

On the inverse of things, Wonder Woman holds off both Cheetah and Luthor, having to keep swapping between the two as she continues to fight the two, changing her tactics each time. Noticing Superman is freed, she sighs, deciding to end the fight now by blocking Cheetah's attacks with her lasso, binding the feral killer then swinging her at Luthor's legs to trip him up, before jumping on him and punching through his shields.

Before she can take apart his armour though, Major Force tackles her from the side, knocking her off of Luthor and trying to hold her down. He grabs her by the back of her hair, though she just cuts herself three and kicks him back, grabbing her discarded shield and smashing him across the face.

"Huh, actually bruised me there." Force mutters, stepping back and rubbing his face, where a crack has formed on the radioactive metal that forms his skin. "Pretty tough for a chick."

"Patronizing me will only make me hit harder." Diana informs him, as the two circle one another. He dives forward, causing her to slip underneath and flip him over, kicking him in the spine as he rolls over. He recovers, moving to tackle her, but is stopped by a kick to the gut, and a headbutt that would break his nose if he was still human. As he steps back stunned, she goes for her discarded lasso, only for Luthor to catch her from surprise, striking from the side, leaving her trapped between the two.

"Huh, my turn." Force mutters, charging up a beam of energy, before being interrupted by a sudden flash of crimson, as Wally rushes him, swinging his fist at him, running off, then coming back from a different direction and booting him in the face. Before Luthor can intervene, Batman leaps onto his back, punching his armoured form and tearing out a piece of hardware before being shook off. Green Arrow continues, hitting him with two arrows, electrocuting him before he puts up his shields once more. In response to that, Canary drops down, kicking against his forcefield and flipping over him, releasing another scream to disrupt his shield, giving Green Arrow a chance to hit him in his shield generator, and thus allowing the bird and bat to take him on, alongside Wonder Woman.

Meanwhile, Wally continues his speedy drive-by assaults on Major Force, but when he comes back to hit him one more time, however, he finds himself unable to move again.

"Idiot. You just don't learn, do you?" Major Force mutters, doing what he can to stop the flow of kinetic energy within the Flash, keeping him frozen. But, his smug grin starts to fade as, slowly, Flash starts to move. Barely a millimetre a minute, but still moving. He continues to try and block the flow of energy, but it just doesn't stop him, as he starts to get faster, actually being able to move forward.

"How? How are you still moving?" Force questions, stepping back as Wally gets faster, continuing to move forward.

"...Because..." Wally starts, speaking slowly as he moves forward more, almost approaching normal walking speed. "...I..." He gets closer. "...am..." And closer. "...the...fastest..." And closer. "...Man...alive!" He overpowers Force, causing him to release his grip on his momentum and making Wally hit him harder and faster than usual, knocking him back.

Wally continues, hitting him again and again as fast as he can. Its not causing much damage, but he keeps doing it, stopping Force from getting a chance to hit back.

"How the hell can you move so much!?" Force questions, trying to block the repeated punches. "Where'd you get all that energy? What the hell is making you fight so hard!?"

"Because, I've got a legacy to uphold." Wally answers, continuing to hit the much more powerful superhuman. "See this lightning bolt on my chest? It means something."

Force manages to block him, hitting him back, though Wally recovers and hits him from behind.

"My uncle wore this when he gave his life to save this world, to let people be free, and happy, and peaceful, and all that other good stuff. And not you, or Luthor, or anyone are going to ruin that. You will not make his death be in vain, and I'll keep going, I'll never stop making sure the world he gave his life for gets to keep going. I'm going to keep moving, keep fighting, and nothing will stand in my way. Least of all you."

"Cute speech kid." Force mutters, catching his fist, then crushing his hand. "Except, it doesn't matter how fast you are. You're still some weak little girly boy, and I'm a titan. You can't beat me."

"Heh, that's the thing, I don't have to." Wally, gritting his teeth from the pain of his now-broken hand, grins back to him. "See, I'm the fastest man alive, but not the only person who's quick. You have any idea how long it takes a Green Lantern to reach the sun? Or for a Kryptonian to charge up and make it back here?"

Above, in space, John stops just before the sun, holding Superman's barely conscious form before the yellow star, as the Kryptonian boyscout opens his eyes, revealing his glowing red pupils as he charges up.

"Together, roughly two minutes. And John left orbit about a hundred and thirteen seconds ago." Wally adds with a smirk, before ducking to his knees as Superman, flying at super sonic speeds, hits Major Force hard, knocking him as far back and away from them as they can.

"Fancy speech you gave there." Clark admits, pausing for a second to help Wally up.

"Glad you caught it." Wally retorts simply, shrugging a bit.

"You know, Barry would be proud, seeing you fight so hard. Major Force was way out of your league."

"Well..." Wally pauses, trying to think of a joke to reply with, but can't help just smile a bit instead. "I really hope he is. Now, before I start crying in a manly way, got Luthor and the others to deal with."

The two turn, facing Luthor as he struggles to fight off the others.

"After you." Wally motions, to which Clark cracks his fingers, darting at Luthor, pulling him away from the others and holding him up above him, glaring at him. Lex tries to stop him by activating one of his many Red sun radiation or Kryptonite based weapons, only for them to not work; Batman already tore them out.

"Its over, Luthor." Clark declares, gripping the steel suit as he bends it out of shape, turning to the side as Lantern returns, along with Captain Atom and the US military as the remaining supervillains are defeated.

"Not yet, Clark." Luthor retorts, grinning slightly as Clark scans his armour, looking for a safe way to remove it, only to discover something else.

"Damn you." Clark mutters, his eyes lighting up and firing at his face. Before the others can question what he's doing, he stops, revealing the melted remains of a robot, designed with Luthor's likeness. He was never wearing the suit at all.

"You're kidding me." Wally mutters, looking at the metal husk of armour as Clark drops it. "I got my hand crushed for a robot Lex?"

"Don't worry, he can't come back from this." Batman assures the other two. "His presidential campaign, his company, his freedom, its gone. He's got nothing else to do but run or be arrested."

"Clark, we'll find him." Diana adds, though Clark instead turns to the side, moving to the injured Kara and Conner, the two nursing some slight burns while resting by the sidelines.

"Are you two alright?"

"I'm fine." Conner answers, then scans Kara for injuries. "She's fine too." He adds, resulting in Kara glaring at him, slightly offended by him doing so without permission.

"Well, let's get you two home." Clark stretches a bit, patting the two on the back, encouraging them too fly and follow him. "And when we get there, we'll have a serious talk about you two rushing into battle with supervillains without supervision."

"Uhg, another lecture?" Conner sighs.

"Yes, another lecture." Clark repeats, instead dragging the groaning teenaged boy and the confused teenaged girl with him.

...

"...so Clark took the kids back to Smallville, gave them a good talking to, and now, they've got their own little family going on." Wally explains to no one, standing beside's a gravestone with a large statue of his uncle atop it. "The girl's doing pretty well, though I think Clark's hoping she'll change her mind about the belly shirt.

"Oh yeah, and Adams got a lot of dirt on Luthor, and with my help, we've got enough evidence to get the government after him. Of course, they demanded I gave up my identity to give the evidence, so its a good thing I didn't plan on any secret identities or anything. Still, he's not getting away with what he did, and we'll find him." Wally continues, moving to the other side to try and get more comfortable.

"Oh yeah, that's another thing, we. The Justice League is back; still looking for more members and all; there's this guy down east, runs around making silly puns while dressed as a beetle, seems pretty on-the-ball, but he comes with this gold guy and the two are pretty annoying when together. Then there's these two girls with fire and ice powers, they seem cool. Still no answer from Gardner though. Well, besides more TV's in my face."

Chuckling a bit, the speedster returns to the front of the grave, rubbing his neck.

"Do wish you could see everything now though. Hal's not been the same since you...I really miss you Uncle Barry. I nearly died, you know, fighting Major Force. Felt like if I stopped moving, I'd be gone, and I wasn't even scared at that, the thing is, only thing on my mind was that, if I did die, what then? I can't let the world you saved be perverted by people like that. I just can't.

"But, I won't let people forget you, or what you did. I'm keeping your memory alive, moving one step at a time, trying to get the kind of world where you can look back from wherever you are now and be happy with how it went. Heh, its so hard to even think of what else to say; I'd make a joke to ease the tension but, I can't. Still feels like you're running with me; hell, maybe you are. Look, I'm getting pretty late for a JLA meeting, so, I'll see you later."

Wally finishes, putting two flowers by the grave along with a postcard, showing a photo himself and Barry years ago, with 'Wish you were here' printed on the back with 'still' written in front of 'here'. Getting up and drying his eyes, he turns away from the grave, heading back to Watchtower, ready for his first meeting on the team.

...

Next time-

With the League being reformed, issues are raised when Oliver Queen disagrees with some of their positions and rules only for his attitude to lead himself, and a reluctant Canary, to wind up facing against the ruthless Intergang, out of contact with the rest of the League. Together, the two will have to fight their way through and escape the criminal organisation...assuming they don't kill each other first. Can they play nice long enough?

...

Review Responses:

Anon: Uh...happy birthday? Not sure how to respond to that.

ACGuest: Thank you! Seriously, thank you! I'm glad to hear someone likes my work so much to check my account daily, especially since I freely admit my early stories were terrible in quality. I'm glad to hear I wrote Superman well, since he was one of the ones I was the most nervous about getting down (along with Martian Manhunter and Wonder Woman). I wanted to make sure I didn't write him too boy scouty but still the Supes we all know and love. As for Wally, yeah, I can see why, he's simply an awesome character. Assuming you're reading this, your question about Batman should've been answered by now.

As for length, I figured I'd do a few adventures, get a few arcs done then work on the cross-universe crossover. And as for inspiration, all of the above, really, as well as Dean Cain and Tom Daly. Growing up, Lois and Clark was my first and most frequent exposure to the Man of Steel because it was my mom's favourite show, so Dean Cain is, to this day, the one I see when I picture Superman. Yet no one remembers him, which is odd. Anyhow, thanks again for liking my writing so much.

Notes:

-Conner's a jerk, I love that about him. I'm writing him as this slightly obnoxious fratbro-like kid, the kind who acts out, argues with his parents, picks on his sibling (or in this case, clone-source's long lost cousin), and in general lives for the spotlight. Like if Bart Simpson grew up and had superpowers. He's still a good kid at heart though, in that he does generally look up to Clark and does fight to help people, he's just a bit of a brat about it. So, that's how I'm taking him and his dynamic with the others.

-Speaking of such, I had a lot of fun writing the scene with him and Kara bonding. Its fun writing a sibling (well, if you can consider them honorary siblings) duo, I don't think I've ever actually done that before; I've wrote characters who are like siblings, and wrote two characters who happen to be siblings, but never together, or at least not a fun duo.

-Kara's outfit being a cheerleading outfit came from the fact that, honestly, that's what it looks like. I chose the Post-Crisis Kara outfit as the main inspiration since, when the skirt is a reasonable length, its not really a bad design; it fits her character very well, and looks like what a young and happy teenager would want to wear. Is it practical? God no. Is it a smart design? Of course not. But think, does any design actually fit her character? Admittedly, I do like the outfit she's wearing in the Season 11 Smallville comic, but that's more of an adult Kara rather than a young teen Kara.

-With the Kryptonian powers thing, to help make Kara and Conner vary in powers, they're both lacking in certain abilities, while beating the other in some others. They both have super speed, strength, flight, and invulnerability, but he's a tad stronger and has X-Ray vision and enhanced senses, while she's faster, more durable, and has heat vision and ice breath. That way, one doesn't render the other useless and their powers can complement one another when they work together. In other words, he's a fist, she's a bullet. Meanwhile, both Clark and Karen have about the same power level and equal powers, but I'd say, personally, Clark has more control while Karen's more willing to dish out her powers.

-Admittedly, Superman gets taken down very easily by Luthor, a bit too easy. But in my defence, it was either think first and not get blindsided, or let people get shot, and at his core, that's the kind of person Superman is. It doesn't matter if the bullet is steel or Kryptonite, he will take it before letting it hit anyone, in fact that's really his only real weakness. Sure, Kryptonians in general are vulnerable to Kryptonite, red sunlight, magic, large amounts of electricity, very large robots, photonic electromagnetic generated angsty vampires, and other Kryptonians, but Superman, his real weakness is his need to save people. Its why I call BS on anyone who claims he's 'not a real hero' because of his powers; yes, he's very powerful, but he's not the strongest being alive, and despite having several crippling weaknesses that humans don't share, he still goes out every day helping everyone he can. He WILL take the bullet, jump out after someone, and help clean up afterwards, even if he's currently got shards of Kryptonite impaled on his back.

-I admit, the 'hero captured by corrupt business owner, heroes break in and save them with stronger guys on the outside and smaller guys on the inside' plot is VERY similar to the third chapter of my Avengers fic. I didn't notice that until I got to the scene with them planning out the attack, but, yeah. Hopefully its different enough to be enjoyable regardless.

-I did originally plan to have more focus on the 'Wally West: Public Enemy number 1' thing I set up, with villains attacking him at STAR labs, forcing him to separate and come back later during the final fight, but couldn't work that in as well as planned.

-Technically, I got Major Force's powers wrong; I really don't know much about him besides 'he's a horrible, horrible human being', so I just assumed his powers were the same as Captain Atom. But, I decided that just made the two more appropriate opposites so I decided to just keep running it this way. I should've put in a scene of the two fighting, but couldn't fit in anything major with Atom.

-You know, this is the second time in a story I've had a chapter end with a character visiting a dead uncle. Hopefully I won't make a habit out of it

-I figured I'd squee this here since it will be posted before my next Batman instalment and this is the only other DC story I'm writing, STEPHANIE BROWN IS BACK IN COMICS! Yes, I admit, its probably weird to get this excited over one character's return, but screw it, she's one of my favourite characters and I want to see her back. Given recent developments in the Flash comics seem to hint that Wally MIGHT be returning too, this makes me a happy bunny. If this proves to be the case, then we just need Cass Cain back, Tim's personality returned, and fun brought back to the books, and we're good to go! Oh yeah, and the years of continuity, the old costumes and designs, the previous characterizations...damn, turns out fixing the New 52 is a lot harder than returning one former Robin to the flock.


End file.
